Of Potters, Weasleys, and a Mysterious MuggleBorn
by Gryffindor777
Summary: Armed with Marauders' Map and Invisibility Cloak, the next generation finds that Hogwarts still contains mystery, friendship, humor, danger, and, unfortunately, a bit of evil. Starts after DH epilogue and includes scenes about H/G as well as the new gen.
1. The MuggleBorn

A/N:The first couple of chapters here are going to be going into a little bit more depth about the day of the epilogue in _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_. If people seem to like the direction that I'm taking, I'll probably continue on beyond that day, and maybe get a story of respectable length up. It's all up to reviewers and my own personal motivation.

Chapter 1

The Muggle-Born

It seems that for Potter men, there's always one day in their lives that they can look back on and identify without a doubt as the turning point of their lives. For James, it was the day when Lily finally agreed to go out with him. For Harry, it was the day that Hagrid finally relayed the message that Harry was a wizard, changing his life forever. And for Albus, who preferred to be called Al, it was the day when he set off for Hogwarts and for the first time in his young life stepped out of his father's shadow.

Rose and Al had ended up in a train-compartment full of a bunch of first years. The whispering and pointing which had been going on since they got on the train at King's Cross didn't stop after they pulled away from the station.

Al thought it was a bit weird that he and his cousin were getting such attention just for being the children of members of the famous golden trio that had defeated Voldemort years ago. He had hoped that since the school had already gotten two years to gawk at his brother James, they'd be used to being around a son of Harry Potter by now, and it wouldn't be such a big deal. But everyone in this compartment seemed to be new to the school, and they would have grown up hearing about his father and his various deeds of daring. And, as he had been told several hundred more times than he could count, he looked exactly like his father, except for the lack of the scar. He had, in fact, always thought it was amusing that so many people commented on how much he looked like his father, like he couldn't make the association for himself, having seen his father, and himself, quite often.

Their odd insistence on stating the obvious physical similarities between himself and his famous father was just one of many experiences that made Albus believe that a good number of people were idiots. A new item on this list, as it turned out, was the excessive pointing and whispering going on in the compartment.

Albus could tell that the amount of attention was bothering Rose, whose parents had managed to keep her out of the spotlight more than Harry had been able to do for him. It wasn't that Rose was showing any obvious signs of being nervous, but Albus and her had always been close enough that he was able to tell even if others wouldn't have been able to.

He tried to make her feel better by striking up a conversation with her as if the rest of the people in the compartment weren't there. After all, the people whispering about them were acting like Rose and Al weren't there. Turnabout, Al reckoned, was fair play.

"Think you'll try out for the Quidditch team, then?" asked Al. In the face of trying to calm his cousin down, he had forgotten all about his own nervousness regarding the possibility of being sorted into Slytherin. Besides, his father had mostly convinced him that he wouldn't get put into the house against his will. And he would certainly never _want _to be put into Slytherin.

"Without a broom?" asked Rose skeptically.

"Well, my father was able to get a broom in his first year," pointed out Al.

"Your father was able to do a lot of things that no one else could," pointed out Rose.

"True, I guess," said Al.

"Besides, James only got on the team last year, in his second year," continued Rose.

At that, Al shifted slightly uncomfortably in his seat. "What, are you saying I can't do something at a younger age than my brother?" he asked, trying to sound offhand about it, although a slight amount of anger crept into his voice. He would have been surprised to know how much he sounded like his mother at that moment, but while everyone in the compartment was able to pick up on the physical similarities between himself and his father, no one picked up on the personality-similarities between himself and his mother.

"I didn't mean that," said Rose, backing down hastily.

Al was a bit embarrassed about letting his insecurity show in his voice, and for a moment refused to meet his cousin's eye. In doing so, he chanced to glance to the seat on his other side, which had been occupied by a small girl with curly black hair who, Al noticed, was not participating in the whispering-party which everyone else in the compartment had apparently been invited to.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," she said, when he caught his eye for a second (Al registered the odd politeness of this girl who had, in fact, not actually been interrupting at all), "but I was wondering, could you tell me what Quidditch _is_?"

Forgetting his embarrassment in light of this new development, Al exchanged a quick glance with Rose.

"You're muggle-born, aren't you?" asked Al, in a voice which probably sounded oddly relieved to this unidentified young witch.

"Er... That means my parents couldn't do magic, right?" she asked, tentatively.

"Yeah," said Rose, who had gotten out of her seat and was now standing in front of the new girl's seat. "And I'm sorry my cousin's being so rude... Asking you questions about your parents before even bothering to learn your name." She paused, and offered her hand for the girl to shake. "My name's Rose Weasley," she said with a warm smile.

Rose had often been told that her smile was contagious, and a smile quickly graced the face of their new acquaintace as she reached out to shake Rose's hand. "I'm Chloe Baron."

Al, embarrassed for a second time in two minutes by Rose calling him out on his lack of manners, blushed slightly as he said, "And I'm Al Potter."

By the look of mild shock that came across Chloe's face at the mention of the name, Albus could tell that she had at least read something about the history of magic before coming to Hogwarts. She looked about ready to open her mouth when Al preempted her. He knew that the next question she would ask would be whether he was related to Harry Potter, and while he supposed he wouldn't mind telling her that he was, he didn't want to do so in front of his whispering and pointing compartment-sharers. "Why don't we go for a walk?" he suggested quickly, and perhaps more loudly than necessary.

Rose nodded understandingly, and although Chloe looked a bit startled, she agreed.

Once they were out in the corridor, they ran into the woman pushing the food-cart. This woman, as it turned out, was the same woman who had always been responsible for the food-cart when Harry and his friends had ridden the train. She had noticed that Harry had often preferred empty compartments, and determined that it was at least marginally likely that this new Potter roving the corridors might be looking to continue the family traditon.

It was for this reason that, after the the children had bought a number of sweets and snacks, she mentioned, "There's an empty compartment three doors down. In case you're curious," she added, with a wink.

"Er, yeah, I was," confessed a confused Al. But nonetheless, he led the way to the compartment, sneaking one last curious glance at the seemingly omniscient trolley-pusher as he opened the door for the girls and walked in behind them.

For a moment, Al dared to hope that the wonderful array of sweets that Chloe never would have seen before might have distracted her from his last name. Unfortunately, after she opened her first chocolate frog, noting with interest the card inside, she said, "So, I think I've worked out why all those gits back in the other compartment were whispering."

Rose and Albus both laughed. Albus especially appreciated the girl's quick labeling of the whispering masses as 'gits'. "Clever one, then, aren't you?" asked Al.

"I like to think so," said Chloe with a playfully smug expression on her face. "That must be really annoying for you, though, that they wouldn't talk to you about it straight out," she said, sympathetically.

"I'm not sure I'd prefer it if they did," said Al, honestly. "I don't know why people can't just forget about it for a bit." He supposed, actually, that he _did _have a pretty good idea of why people couldn't help themselves from thinking of his father whenever they looked at him, but that was rather beside the point.

"Oh. Well, then, I won't talk about it," Chloe said cheerfully. "Anyway, I've got loads more questions. For starters, you never did answer me about Quidditch."

So the rest of their first trip to Hogwarts' Castle was passed happily between the three first-years. Albus and Rose were each quite glad to find someone who could think of them as individuals rather than as the children of their famous parents, and Chloe was relieved at Al's and Rose's promises that she'd fit in quite well at the school even in spite of her ancestry.

"James told me that at least a quarter of students are muggle-born nowadays," said Al reassuringly. "I know it seemed like everyone in our first compartment had magical parents, but that was only about 15 kids. There'll be at least fifty in our year."

"Sorted into the four houses, right?" asked Chloe, as if she were reviewing material for a test. "Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Sytherin?"

"Right," congratulated Rose. They had told the names of the houses to her when they were discussing Quidditch, to explain the house cup.

"Which house do you think I'll be in?" asked Chloe.

"Well, certainly not Slytherin. That's a house pretty much for pure-bloods only," said Rose.

Chloe frowned. "But I thought you said it wouldn't matter that I'm muggle-born?"

"You wouldn't want to be in Slytherin anyway," pointed out Al. "They're mostly evil nutters." Then he recalled what his father had just reminded him about his middle name earlier that day. "Although I suppose not all of them."

Chloe looked confused. "Don't be nervous, though," advised Rose. "The other houses are loads better anyway. Maybe we'll all get sorted into Gryffindor."

"That'd be brilliant," agreed Albus.

Hours later, after Hagrid had ferried the first years across the lake, as he had done each year for decades, Albus, Chloe, and Rose, filed into the room beside the great hall with the rest of the first years.

Professor Flitwick soon came in to give the first years instructions on what to do next since he was the Deputy headmaster, having served more years at Hogwarts than any of the staff aside from McGonagall, who was now headmistress.

"Get into alphabetical order," advised Flitwick, with the characteristic squeak creeping into his voice. "I'll be back in a few minutes to take you out to be sorted."

He left the room, and there was a fair amount of chatter as the students tried to figure out what everyone else's last name was and where they belonged, and as they said good-bye to newly made friends who had come from different alphabetial-backgrounds from themselves.

"Okay, just remember, think 'Gryffindor,'" encouraged Rose as Chloe made her way toward the front of the line and Rose and Al made their way toward the back.

Shortly thereafter, Professor Flitwick came back and led the new students into the Great Hall. He then brought the Sorting Hat out and sat it on the stool.

As usual, it began to sing.

"I am the Sorting Hat and have had my job for years

But I come for more than just to earn your cheers

It is in instead my proud and rather sacred mission

to help each house continue it's own proud tradition

Each founder gave me their own orders

for who to let into their house's borders

Slytherin into his noble house of silver and green

Took those whose blood he thought most clean

Into the house of Ravenclaw's bronze and blue

Come those most anxious to learn something new

In the students of Hufflepuff house with its yellow and black

Hard work and persistence are never at a lack

And into Gryffindor's House of red and gold

march those who are the most brave and bold."

There were cheers from the older students as the first years shifted nervously from foot to foot, waiting to discover their fates.

First to be sorted was Denise Abbot (niece of Hannah). She went to Hufflepuff. Brian Anderson went to Ravenclaw, and then Chloe Baron, third in line, approached the stool and put on the hat.

Albus hardly had time to cross his fingers and hope that Chloe would be the first of the three of them to get sorted into Gryffindor when the hat declared, "Slytherin!"

Al turned around in the line and his eyes met Rose's. Both pairs of eyes were wide with shock. Neither had heard of a full-fledged muggle-born being sorted into Slytherin. Half-blood Slytherins were rare enough. But muggle-born Slytherins were, as far as the two of them knew, unheard of.

Both Al and Rose then both turned to look toward Chloe, who was heading toward the applauding Slytherin table. She glanced over her shoulder at each of them in turn, looking somewhat regretful. Apparently too nervous to sit too close to any of the older Slytherins, Chloe sat in a spot where there was one empty seat on each side.

Part of Al felt sorry for Chloe, who'd just been sorted into a house where she would no doubt be ostracized once her housemates found out her family background. But there was another part of Al, a part he had inherited from his father, that was already working furiously to solve this new mystery. How could a muggle-born get sorted into Slytherin? She hadn't been lying to Rose and him, had she? But Al didn't think that she had. There was something about her that made Al trust her.

But if Chloe hadn't lied to him, had someone perhaps lied to Chloe? Was she adopted, perhaps abandoned by a pair of wizarding parents?

These puzzles filled Al's mind until the line in front of him disappeared one person at a time, and finally he heard Flitwick squeak, "Albus Potter."

He put the hat on his head.

He thought, "Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor."

But the hat made no similar proclamation. Instead, he heard the sorting hat in his head, "Well, you're a bit tough to place, then, aren't you? Not at all like your brother. He was Gryffindor through and through."

"I couldn't be a Gryffindor?" wondered Al nervously.

"Well, you _could _be," admitted the sorting hat. "And you'd be a decent Gryffindor. But you'd be an excellent Slytherin."

At this moment, several different thought-processes streaked through Albus's mind. His father's statement that Severus Snape, a Slytherin, had been one of the bravest men he ever knew. The fact that everyone thought of him as just a reflection of his father and his brother, both of whom had been Gryffindors. The regretful look from Chloe, who was still sitting with an empty seat on each side of her and knew no one in her house. Yes, he still thought it'd be nice to be in the same house as Chloe, and after all, that would be best way to figure out why she had been sorted into Slytherin in the first place. Besides... would he rather be decent as a Gryffindor, or excellent as a Slytherin?

"All right, then, Slytherin it is," thought Albus hesitantly.

The voice of the sorting hat, however, was not hesitant at all as the single word, "Slytherin!" rang across the Great Hall.

A/N: All right, so... What'd you think? I'll probably write the next couple chapters whether I get any reviews or not, but reviews will definitely help me update quicker. Oh, also... source for the colors of each house was the HP-lexicon (www dot hp-lexicon dot org)... I don't remember whether they were ever given in the books.


	2. A Potter In Slytherin

_A/N: All right, here's chapter 2. In this chapter, I jump rather frequently between four points of view, but each different point of view should be separated from its predecessor by a line-break. I think I kind of like the little perspective-change deal, tell me whether you like it or find it annoying._

Chapter 2

A Potter in Slytherin

Al could hardly believe what he had just done. He had just agreed to be put into Slytherin, and now that the hat had agreed with his decision, he immediately regretted it. Was there still time to get the hat to put him into Gryffindor instead?

* * *

Silence fell over the Great Hall. James had never heard such quiet during a sorting. Even the normal whispering that usually passed between those students in higher years who didn't really care what happened to the first years seemed to have stopped. Had a Potter really been sorted into Slytherin? 

James, of course, was just as surprised as everyone else, if not moreso. Sure, he had teased Al about being sorted into Slytherin, but he hadn't believed, for even a second, that it would actually happen. Here was his little brother, who looked practically just like him, and who he thought had a similar personality to himself as well. If only for a second or two, James wondered if he knew his brother as well as he had thought.

But then, as Al sat frozen on the sorting-stool, looking almost as stunned as everyone else, James realized that, Slytherin or not, whatever else Albus was, he was his brother. So James, who was sitting fairly close to the front of the room, made an effort to catch Al's eye. He winked at Albus and mouthed "It's ok," and then gave his characteristic wide grin.

Al returned a weak smile, took off the hat and, with a small step, began walking to the Slytherin table. Al's motion seemed to bring the Slytherins out of their temporary shock at his being sorted into their house. Still, only some of them cheered. Most, it seemed, had begun to turn to each other and were whispering.

* * *

_Oh Merlin! _thought Al, _that damn bloody whispering again. _But somehow, the whispering, which had seemed just annoying on the train, had taken on a rather menacing quality now. Maybe it was because now the people whispering were older students and not just first years, but it seemed to Al that the whisperers were conspirng against him. What were they whispering? Were they already planning how to make life in Slytherin miserable for him? 

But it wouldn't help anything to think like that, Al knew. Besides, _some _people were cheering... _What maybe seven people?_ he wondered, as he scanned the table which he was approaching at what seemed like a slow-motion pace. But as his eyes scanned the table, his eyes fell on Chloe, with an empty seat on either side, cheering louder than anyone else.

He was at that moment extremely glad that he had made friends with Chloe on the train. But he still wondered why she couldn't've just got sorted into Gryffindor and saved him this whole mess, since he was almost sure that, if she had been in Gryffindor, that's the house he would've chosen. She was certainly brave enough for Gryffindor, one little first year cheering her heart out in spite of how much this made her stand out in font of her new, and rather intimidating, older house-mates.

Well, at least he knew where he would sit. And at that moment, it seemed like he had been crossing the Great Hall for hours, and he decided that, at the very least, that needed to stop. So he took the next twenty or so paces toward Chloe at almost a run.

* * *

Chloe didn't stop cheering until Al had actually taken the seat next to her. 

"You know, don't you, that by cheering for me, you've pretty much shot your chances of fitting in in your new house?" asked Al in a whisper.

"I'd rather fit in with you and Rose," she said simply.

"Thanks, Chloe," said Al.

"No problem, now shut up, I'm trying to fit in," said Chloe. For a second, Al actually looked like he thought she was serious, and so she stuck her tongue out to show she was joking. Al laughed.

They watched the sorting in silence for a bit. A couple times, Rose glanced nervously over at Chloe and Albus, who waved and smiled encouragingly. After a couple people got sorted, though, Chloe started tapping her foot in impatience. "Come on, get to Rose already!" she said in a forceful whisper.

"She'll be in Gryffindor," said Al. "There's no way _both _of us get Slytherin."  
"We can still hope, can't we?" asked Chloe in a slightly irritated tone.

* * *

Al dropped the subject, but when Rose put on the sorting-hat, it was him who was proven right, much to his own disappointment. The hat called out "Gryffindor!" almost as soon as it hit her Weasley-red hair. 

Al noticed her cast one longing toward the empty seat on the other side of Chloe before making her way over to the Gryffindor table, which had exploded in cheers.

* * *

There were only two empty spots at the Gryffindor table when Rose got there, and she took the one closer to James, only about four seats down from him. 

"Way to go, Rose," he called down to her as she took her seat.

She smiled sheepishly back at him, but couldn't help but notice that they were too far away from each other to actually on a conversation, and the people immediately surrounding her seemed to all be fourth year or older.

None of them seemed to be particularly keen to make friends with this little first year sitting amongst them, and so Rose spent much of the ensuing meal in silence, listening to the familiar sounds of James' laughter as it floated toward her down the table.

James, of course, was having no trouble fitting in, sitting between Marty Finnigan and John Wood, his two best friends who Rose recognized from all the times that both Rose's family and John's friends had visited the reconstructed Potter residence at Godric's Hollow at the same time.

Twice Rose made an attempt to talk to James in spite of the four people sitting between them, but it was impossible to make herself heard over the general din without shouting. And she didn't want to shout because, in spite of the miserable time she was having, she still didn't want to damage her pride by getting all worked up and admitting that it was the first night and she was already feeling lonely and wanted her cousin to talk to her.

So instead, she just pretended like the reason why she wasn't talking to anyone was that she was inordinately interested in the vegetables on her plate.

* * *

Over at the Slytherin table, things were going rather better for Al and Chloe than they were for Rose. They had a good conversation about what classes they hoped would be included in their first full day at Hogwarts, with Al happily relaying all the information that James had told him about the various classes offered, not knowing that a fair amount of the information he was passing on was inaccurate. 

He was just getting into describing Troll-fighting, a class which James, of course, had made up off the top of his head, when a tall boy with curly black hair slid into the seat next to Chloe.

"Hi, my name is Andrew Himmel," said this boy, reaching out to shake first Chloe's and then Al's hand. "I'm a prefect, and I was just concerned that maybe you weren't quite getting a proper Slytherin welcome from everyone here tonight."

Chloe and Al both nodded, not quite sure how to respond.

"They're mostly just shocked, I'm sure," said Himmel. "Nobody expected that the Slytherin house would get a Potter. 'Course you do come from a noble line of wizards, so it's no surprise, really."

Al could tell that Himmel was trying to be friendly, but the reference to 'noble line' sounded an awful like 'pure blood.' Although he knew he ought to do his best to be civil to the only upper-class Slytherin who had bothered to talk to him so far, he couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy at the reference.

"Er... thanks," said Al, hoping that his voice didn't betray his mixed feelings.

"And your last name was... Baron, right?" asked Himmel. "I can't remember hearing about anyone named Baron before... Aside from our Slytherin ghost," he added with a wide grin, "but as that was a title instead of a name, I doubt you two are related. Anyway, refresh me, who were your parents?"

"Daniel and Maggie are their names, but you won't have heard of them, they're both muggles," said Chloe, and Al was shocked to hear a certain tone of aloofness, as if she had already judged that answering questions about her ancestry for nosy Slytherins was beneath her dignity.

A look of slight shock passed over Himmel's face, but he changed his expression quickly. "Ah well, there must've been some magic in your ancestry somewhere. You've got plenty of time to discover your heritage, though, you're young still. Anyway, I'm going to go eat the rest of my dinner, I just wanted to let you two know that if there's ever anything you need, just let me know. We prefects are here to help." And with that, Himmel moved to his original spot several seats down the table.

Chloe and Al exchanged quizzical looks for a moment. Then Al said, "Well, I think it's pretty obvious what _that _was all about."

"What's that, then?" asked Chloe, obviously curious.

"That bloke clearly fancies you!" he exclaimed, though not loudly enough for Himmel to hear.

Chloe burst out laughing and punched Al playfully in the arm.

* * *

Several hours later, James rolled over in his bed for about the fiftieth time that night. The first night back at Hogwarts was always the worst for him. He was the type of person who needed to get rid of lots of energy during the day if he wanted to have any real shot at sleeping during the night, and spending the whole day cooped up in a train cabin followed by a feast and being sent straight to bed just didn't seem to constitute a full-day's work for James. 

It'd be easier to sleep later in the month, once classes had picked up and his brain was exhausted by homework and the plotting of various pranks with Marty and John and his body was exhausted from flying around the pitch during Quidditch practice. But tonight, he knew, as he glanced at his watch, which read 12:06, he would be lucky to get to sleep before 2.

_Well, if I've determined I'm not sleeping for another two hours, I might as well get out of this bed, _he determined. He opened his trunk, pulled out his Defense Against the Dark Arts book, and decided that he'd go down to the common room and read it until he got drowsy.

But when he got down to the common room, he was surprised to see Rose already down there.

He swore he heard her sniffle a bit before she said, "Hi, James."

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked

* * *

"Nothing," answered Rose, but it was a lie. If nothing was bothering you, you didn't stay up late the night before the first day of classes in your first year. Especially not if you were Hermione's daughter. In Rose's opinion, several things were wrong. But she wasn't sure she wanted to talk to James about them. If it had been Al, it would've been different, but James and Rose had never been quite as close as she and Al were. She was closer to Al than she was with any of her other cousins. Or she had thought she was, before tonight.

* * *

James knew better than to press the point immediately. James was one of the most popular kids in his year, and this wasn't a matter of random chance. He'd always had a peculiar knack for knowing what people needed from him at any given moment. And at this particular moment, what Rose needed was not for James to come across sounding nosy or protective. 

So James put his hands in his pockets and plopped down on the couch beside Rose and said simply, "Nice weather tonight, then, eh?"

Rose looked at James, seemingly torn between amusement and irritation. "What does that have to do with _anything_?" she asked.

"Very little, I suppose," conceded James. He let the silence hang in the air for a moment before asking innocently, "Why, did you have something else you wanted to talk about?"

Rose groaned, but couldn't help grinning a bit too. Perhaps if there'd been observers in the common room, they wouldn't have understood what was even remotely funny about this conversation. But, despite their different last names, both cousins had inherited the Weasley sense of humor, which was usually quite acute. "People who snore are bloody _annoying_!" declared Rose.

"What does that have to do with _anything_?" asked James in an uncanny imitation of Rose.

Rose rolled her eyes at James. "It explains why I'm awake, which I _thought _was what you wanted to know."

"I didn't want to know anything," contended James. "I wanted to look over my Defense Against the Dark Arts book until I get tired. So, if you want, I'll just get on with that while you finish up with whatever it is that you wanted to do down here."

James opened his book and propped it open on his lap. At one point, James allowed himself a glance out of the corner of his eye, which showed him a rather irritated looking Rose.

After several more moments of silence, she said "Fine I'll talk," albeit quite begrudgingly.

"I'm glad," said James, as he closed the book and looked at his cousin.

* * *

"I'm worried about Albus," said Rose simply. 

"I'm sure he'll be fine in Slytherin," said James. "He seemed to be getting along fine with that Baron girl, didn't he?"

"Yeah," said Rose. "But I'm sure at least half the rest of the house will hate him."

"He'll still have us," said James. "Just because we're in different houses don't mean we won't see him. There's clubs and all."

"What, like the Gobstones club?" asked Rose incredulously. The only reason she'd heard about the Gobstones club at all was that James had once made fun of some kid in his year who decided to play in the gobstone club rather than try out for Quidditch.

"I'm sure there's other, better, inter-house clubs," said James, although Rose noticed that he wasn't actually naming any.

There was silence for a moment, but Rose decided that she would tell him what it was that was bothering her most of all. It wasn't so much that his little act of playing like he didn't want to know had fooled her. If he didn't actually care what was bothering her, he would've acted like he _did_ care and then simply not listened. Going out of his way to pretend he didn't care was the kind of move that her cousin was famous for: he used it on Rose any time she knew something that he didn't about some surprise party or secret in the family.

But the important thing was that he did care, and he would listen, and whether they'd been close before tonight or not, James was still her cousin, and she certainly saw him more often than she saw any of her other cousins, anyway. Besides, little as she wanted to admit it to herself, being able to vent to someone right now was more or less essential to her mental well-being.

"What if he _does _fit in, though?" asked Rose.

James responded immediately, "Even if he wanted to, a Potter just couldn't fit in in Slytherin."

"And before tonight, you'd've said that a Potter couldn't even be _sorted _into Slytherin. Apparently, Al's a special case," said Rose.

"What, you're suggesting Al's some kind of Blood-Bigot?" asked James, who was clearly irritated.

"I don't _want _him to be," said Rose, throwing her hands up as if surrendering.

"He's _not_," said James emphatically, although his voice was calmer, kinder again.

"How d'you know?" asked Rose.

"Because he's my brother," responded James. "And he's the son of Harry Potter and Ginny used-to-be-Weasley! D'you think your Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry raised a Death-eater?"

Rose laughed. It started out as a relieved laugh, but then, as she laughed, all the rest of the emotions of the day that she had been holding up inside seemed to rush out behind this laugh. The excitement of starting the first day of Hogwarts, the sense of betrayal she had felt when Al had been sorted into Slytherin, the overwhelming annoyance she had felt at the snoring girls who just could not, for Merlin's sake, let her sleep, and the loneliness she'd felt when she couldn't find anyone to talk to her at dinner. Without warning, the loud laugh turned into a sob and she was suddenly crying and trying to quiet herself down. Now embrassment was added in to the range of emotions that were rushing out of her body in a stream of tears.

"Whoa," said James, clearly alarmed. "What's wrong?"

This question was so ridiculous that, even though tears were still falling down her cheeks, she started to laugh again. "I just _told _you what's wrong!" she told him.

"You don't really think Al's a death-eater, do you?" asked James, who was now apparently confused.

"No! I just wanted him to be in Gryffindor!" she said, sniffing, and doing her best to pull herself back together as soon as possible, wiping her tears on her sleeve. "That's not why I'm crying or anything, though," she added hastily. "Mostly, I'm just tired, I guess. Mum had us out of bed at five o' clock in the bloody morning to make sure we weren't late for the train, then I didn't fall asleep in the car or the train, because I was so excited, and then tonight, when I was finally _ready _to sleep, it turns out that three of my four roommates snore like bloody dragons. Without the fire, of course. Anyway, it's just been a long damn day."

* * *

James was glad that his cousin's weeping fit had passed and she seemed to have gone back to normal. One thing that James had not yet worked out how to deal with was crying girls. "Such language!" said James, putting on as scandalized a face as he could muster. 

"Ah, yes," said Rose, feigning an apologetic look. "I forgot, I forgot, little ears."

There was a silence between them for a moment. "So you miss him already, don't you?" asked James, who could understand what this must be like for her. He had been introduced to Marty and John before school had begun, as his parents knew theirs quite well. They'd been fairly good friends before coming to school, and he hadn't talked to anyone else on the train-ride over, he'd been so sure all three of them would be sorted into Gryffindor together. While he didn't figure he'd've ended up crying in the common room if he'd been put there without them, it certainly would've ruined his day pretty well.

Rose nodded.

"We'll figure something out," said James. "Something better than gobstones even," he added with a grin.

"Couldn't be any worse than gobstones, I suppose," granted Rose.

A/N: Hmmm... all right, so... 2 chapters down? Are you starting to like how I'm writing the characters? Will people continue to read if I continue to write? Is this story truly worth the time that I'm using to write it instead of doing homework/trying to figure out how to get into graduate school? Anyway, I'd love to know what you thought, so please review!


	3. Bedtime Stories

A/N: All right, so it took awhile to put up, and it's a small chapter. But it's something. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 3:

The Bed-time Story

At about the same time that James Potter and Rose Weasley were finishing up their conversation, Ginny Weasley was arriving back at her house in quite a different part of Great Britain.

"I'm so glad you're finally home!" said Harry, who Ginny knew had to be at work early the next morning, and therefore ought already to have been in bed.

"You know you can go to sleep before I get home, don't you?" asked Ginny, for what honestly had to be about the thousandth time over the years that Harry and she had been married. Harry had never quite gotten used to the idea of his wife being an auror, which was odd, considering that she'd announced her intentions to become one well before they'd gotten married.

Harry grinned sheepishly at her. "For the moment discounting that that's _completely_ not true, I'd be even less able to get to sleep early tonight, as Al _and _James are away this year."

Ginny returned her husband's grin. In spite of the fact that there was no reason to believe that Hogwarts was anything less than safe these days, Harry had gotten an odd case of separation anxiety the first night that James had been at school each of the last two years. Ginny thought it was rather cute, actually, but naturally the symptoms would only have gotten worse with multiple children off at school.

Ginny removed the grin from her face and gave a very convincing heavy sigh. "All right, well... I'm going to go get ready for bed, and then we can talk all about what the boys are doing off at school... Probably sleeping at this hour... and maybe that will help you get to sleep. Unless you can think of any _other_ kind of activity that might help you get to sleep?" Ginny grinned in spite of herself.

Harry gave a fake frown of concentration, saying, "Nothing immediately comes to mind, but I'll think about it for a moment, then come up."

Harry turned a bit in his favorite seat in the living room, where he had been sitting when his wife got home, in order to watch her walk up the stairs. He was struck with one of his random realizations of how lucky he was to have her. He had similar thoughts often. Perhaps it was a product of having lost so many people during his childhood, but he seemed to have an uncanny knack for appreciating the people who stuck around.

He looked out of the window next to the fire-place, which, as he had figured out two years ago, pointed approximately north, more or less towards Hogwarts, where James and Albus now were.

Harry sighed deeply, and reminded himself that they'd be perfectly safe there.

As an auror, Harry knew that the most serious threat to decent wizards nowadays were the small-scale hate-crimes carried out by disorganized groups of former death-eaters and recent converts to the pure-blooded supremacy line of thinking. And none of these disorganized groups had any real shot of getting into Hogwarts, even assuming that any of the groups _did _have the courage to bring his personal attention to themselves by doing something to hurt a Potter.

But why was he having such morbid thoughts as these when his wife was waiting for him upstairs?

Oh, no, wait. Harry could hear footsteps on the stairs again. Why was Ginny coming back downstairs?

Oh damn.

Harry had forgotten to tuck Lily in.

He had jumped out of his chair and made it to the stairs before Ginny even made it the whole way down them.

"You forgot--" said Ginny, looking quite more angry than the situation really called for.

"Yeah, I know, I screwed up. But she was so _quiet_. Kind of clever of her, really, when you think about it. She'd been told I'd never let her bedtime go past without tucking her in, so she knew she couldn't really get in trouble for staying up as long as I hadn't tucked her in. So she stayed quiet and... Well, frankly I think this type of behavior should be encouraged. And you can't tell me you wouldn't've done the same thing as a kid!"

"I'm not saying that _she's _done anything wrong," said Ginny, her voice raising slightly, although Harry thought he saw her concealing a grin as well. "But you're supposed to be the responsible adult and put her to bed!"

"You know, if you don't stop yelling, you're going to wake Lily," said Harry in the most serious voice he could muster. It struck Harry just how courageous it was of him to still be in a joking mood with Ginny so obviously pissed off at him. Still, it wasn't for nothing that he had been sorted into Gryffindor all those years before.

Ginny apparently chose to ignore Harry's joke. "Now she's going to be tired in the morning!"

"Maybe Hermione can start lessons a little late tomorrow? You don't have work at all tomorrow, do you?" The work schedule for aurors was, in Harry's mind, one of the three most illogical concepts in the wizarding world, behind how the bludgers in quidditch games always seemed to aim toward the team Harry was rooting for, and how Filch's cat Mrs. Norris had not yet been murdered. In all their times as aurors, neither Ginny nor Harry had ever had the same schedule for two weeks in a row. They each worked between 4 and 7 days each week, and between 8 and 14 hours a day. However, Harry had made a deal with his boss, Kingsley Shacklebolt, that he should always be able to be on his lunch break as close to 10 pm as possible if he was working a night shift, so that he could tuck his daughter in. Which is why it was even more ridiculous that he had forgotten to tuck her in tonight.

"But then what will Hugo do?" said Ginny.

"I'm sure he won't mind watching muggle cartoons or something for awhile before starting lessons," said Harry. Hermione had home-schooled her own children as well as Harry and Ginny's, and now it was only Hugo and Lily who needed to study with her. "At any rate, you should stop blocking my path up the stairs. I should tuck Lily in, it's getting late."

Ginny gave a little growl that Harry hoped was more playful than it sounded. At any rate, he would spend a while tucking Lily in, to give Ginny a chance to cool off.

Lily was sitting up in her bed reading a muggle book when Harry opened the door. Everybody told her that her aunt Hermione was the only one in the family who had been so into reading as she was before they started at Hogwarts. Nobody could quite figure out how Lily could have inherited this trait from her, given that they weren't technically blood-relatives. Harry had once told her that he thought maybe she had inherited her love of reading from her grandmother and namesake, although he couldn't be sure, given that it was difficult to find out exactly what Lily had been like as a kid.

Lily closed the book quickly when the door opened, and did her best to look nonchalant.

"Do you know what time it is?" asked Harry. Lily could tell he was trying to maintain a serious face, but could also see how much of a chore this was for him.

"Well... I lost track of time reading, but it _couldn't _be any later than 10 o'clock or you'd've come tuck me in, right?" asked Lily sweetly.

"No, it's midnight. And your mother just got home," said Harry.

"Oooh, I _thought _I heard her coming up the stairs. Well. You're in a bit of trouble then, aren't you?" asked Lily with a small grin.

"Yes, yes I am. But that's not for you to worry about. Still, i don't suppose you could've turned the light off if you'd heard your mother coming up the stairs, could you?" asked Harry.

"Well, then she wouldn't have seen that I was still up," said Lily.

"Yeah, that's kind of the point I was making," said Harry.

"But then she wouldn't have told you to come tuck me in... And I wanted you to come tuck me in soon, otherwise I might've fallen asleep before you did, and we couldn't have that," explained Lily.

"If you wanted me to come tuck you in, why didn't you tell me at 10? I mean, you can't've lost track of time _that _badly. Besides," he said, glancing at her wrist, "you've still got your watch on!"

Lily grinned, taking off her watch and putting it on her bedside counter. "Oh, fine, so I knew what time it was. But, really. Come and remind you to tuck me in? Does that even sound like me? Or _any _self-respecting nine-year-old?"

"No, I suppose not," conceded Harry.

"Okay, now hurry up and tell me a story, it's past my bed-time," commanded Lily.

"All right," said Harry, smiling and sitting down at the edge of his daughter's bed. "Which story do you want to hear?" He had told her a story every night since before she'd been old enough to understand them, so there had naturally been some repetition, especially as there were only a certain number of stories from his childhood that he could talk about to his 9 year old daughter.

"The one about Dobby!" said Lily. It was one of Lily's favorite stories, probably largely because the way Harry had always told it to his children, the story had a happy ending.

"Okay," said Harry. "Well, as you know, there was once a house-elf named Dobby, who lived with a very mean family of wizards. It was a very unpleasant place to live--"

"More unpleasant than it is here when Mummy gets irritated?" asked Lily. Harry had included that part in the story once two years ago, when he and Ginny had just had a particularly nasty argument, and Lily had inserted the fact every time he had told the story since then. He sometimes wondered why Lily had him keep telling her these stories when she so clearly knew them by heart. Harry supposed that something about the tradition of the nightly bedtime story made her feel good. It made him feel good, anyway.

"That's right," said Harry, with a small smile. "And one day, Dobby the house-elf found out that his masters were planning to do some very bad things to some people at Hogwarts."

"Were Dobby's masters the ones that gave Mum the bad journal?" asked Lily.

Harry's eyebrows shot up. He'd never told her this, although he had told Lily a highly edited version of the story of Riddle's journal. In the edited version, it wasn't clear that Ginny had been possessed by Voldemort, or that she had been responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets. The gist of the story had been that her mother had accidentally done some bad things because of a journal she had written in, the moral being that Lily should tell her parents immediately if she ever came across a magical object that made her feel or act strangely.

"How'd you know that?" asked Harry.

"Well... you've said that Dobby came to see you before your second year... That would make it right before Mum's first year, in which she had been given a bad journal, also by a 'very mean family of wizards,'" said Lily.

"Good catch," said Harry proudly. "You really are just awfully clever, aren't you?"

Lily smiled and said, "You've told me so a few times, anyway. I didn't mean to get ahead of your story, though... tell me more about Dobby."

"Okay," said Harry. "So Dobby came to see me, and tried to convince me not to go back to Hogwarts. It looked like he was going to get his wish, too, because owing to Dobby's well-intentioned shenanigans, the Dursley's got mad enough at me to keep me locked up in my bedroom. But soon enough, Ron, Fred, and George came to rescue me in a flying Ford Anglia."

Lily was smiling. The flying Ford Anglia was her favorite part of this story.

"Then, he used his special house-elf magic to close the entrance to Entrance 9 3/4, which was especially easy for him to do since we were running so late. So, for some reason, Ron and I thought it would be a good idea to fly the Ford Anglia in to school."

"Which is the kind of thing that I should _under no circumstances _ever even consider doing," recited Lily with a smile on her face.

"Why are you smiling?" asked Harry. "It really _is _something that you should never do!"

Lily laughed, and even though she said, "I know, Daddy!" he somehow got the feeling that she didn't really share his conviction that she shouldn't be flying Ford Anglias around. Sometimes he thought that McGonagall might have more trouble with this daughter of his than she had ever had with him and Ron.

"Anyway, more by luck than anything else, your uncle and I managed to get back out of the car and into the castle without anything worse happening than Ron breaking his wand and the car driving itself off. Then Dobby ended up trying to save me again by charming a bludger to injure me, which he hoped would make me go home. But Dobby underestimated the sheer stubbornness that a good sense of Gryffindor-bravery can inspire in people, so I stayed at the school no matter how dangerous things got that year. Some of the time I thought that Dobby was actually working for his owners and trying to get me sent home just for laughs. But after I went into the Chamber of Secrets, which is, of course, another story that I've told you all about, I realized that Dobby really was trying to protect me, even though he had to punish himself every time he came to see me. Then, I freed him by tricking his master into throwing an old sock at him."

"And the _moral _of the story is, no matter how bad your situation looks, you should always try to do the right thing, and if you're lucky, you might just be rewarded for it after all," finished Lily.

"That's right. And now that the story's over, it's bed time," said Harry. "And not a moment too soon, given that it's almost 12:30."

He had gotten off the bed to leave, but Lily stopped him. "Dad?" she asked.

There was something uncertain in her voice. "What, honey?" he asked.

"Where's Dobby now?" she asked.

She was the first of his children to ask this question, even though she had told the story to each of them several times. He had made it a policy to never lie to his children, and even though there were occasions when he had had to flat out decline to answer a question, he reckoned that this was not one of them.

"He died," Harry answered simply.

"I thought so," said Lily softly. "I thought otherwise, he'd probably come 'round for tea sometimes, like Hagrid does. Or else you could have at least put some cheesy line in at the end like, 'and he lived happily ever after.' But he didn't. How did he die?"

Lots of tough questions coming in one night, thought Harry, sighing. "He died in the war against Voldemort," said Harry. He had never gone too far into depth with his children about the war with Voldemort, but all of his children knew that the war had been how their Uncle Fred had died, and how Teddy's parents had died.

Lily was frowning and nodding. Apparently she had expected this answer.

"He probably wouldn't have died if he hadn't defied his masters in the first place, would he have?" asked Lily.

Harry didn't immediately know how to respond. His daughter seemed to be growing up so fast, to be able to ask questions like this. "No, I don't suspect he would have," Harry admitted.

"Still, it sounds like if he'd had a choice, he'd've died in the war after having been freed rather than died years later without his freedom. D'you think so?" asked Lily.

"Yeah," said Harry. "I do. You know, you're a pretty cool kid, Lily Ginevra."

"Thanks, Dad," said Lily with a smile.

A/N: I dunno, I kinda liked the chapter, although maybe not as much as the first two... Still, I wanted to characterize Lily a bit, and I also thought the bit with Harry and Ginny arguing was kind of fun... Anyway, this is the last chapter from the day of the epilogue... D'you lot think it's worthwhile to develop a semi-independent plot so I can keep playing with these characters? Please review to answer that question as well as to tell me what you liked or didn't like about this chapter. Thanks!


	4. The Invisibility Cloak

A/N: Ok, yeah… this chapter took forever to put up… but… I've been pretty busy lately. I hope you enjoy the chapter, though!

Chapter 4

The Invisibility Cloak

After she and James had finished their conversation the previous night, Rose had been able to fall asleep thanks to a pair of magical ear-plugs James lent her. Therefore, in spite of her late night, she had ended up with at least most of a decent night's sleep before making her way down for breakfast on her first day of classes.

As she made her way over to the table, she spotted James, who immediately motioned her over to a seat across from him and next to Marty.

"'Morning sunshine," said James cheerfully.

She'd told James many times throughout their childhoods that she hated when he called her what she considered 'little-kid-names', such as 'sunshine.' He was only two years older than her, and she felt that there was no reason for him to be patronizing. She knew that James probably never _meant _it to be patronizing, and further reckoned that he only continued to do it now because he knew it annoyed her. But none of this made it any less annoying. So, as she pulled a bowl toward her and began pouring herself some cereal, she responded, just as brightly, "'Morning, hog's-breath!"

Marty raised his eyebrows. "You're cousin's as polite as you are, I see?" he asked.

"What, and this is the first time you've picked up on that?" asked Rose incredulously. "You act like we've never met before!" As Marty, John, and James all laughed at this admittedly rather stupid joke, Rose randomly caught the eye of one of the snoring girls who'd kept her up the night before. Still feeling a bit spiteful about the snoring, Rose was almost glad to see that the girl, whose name she believed was Audrey, looked a bit jealous at Rose's familiarity with the older boys.

"Anyway," said James once the laughter had died down, "I was just telling Marty and John about the conversation we had last night."

For a fleeting moment, Rose was extremely embarrassed, thinking that James had been making fun of her to his friends because of her little crying fit. She wasn't quite sure what she would do if he _had _told them that, but she was fairly certain it would involve calling him something much worse than 'hog's-breath'.

James must have saw the beginnings of a blush creeping over Rose's face, because he hurriedly shook his head and clarified, "You remember, the conversation where you quite rationally explained that you thought we should give your dear cousin Albus the opportunity to hang out with us Gryffindors instead of having to keep the Slytherins in line all the time?"

"Oh, yes," said Rose. "And did either of them think of a better idea than gobstones, then?"

"No, little-miss-wise-mouth," said James with mock-annoyance, "you butted in and started calling me names before I could tell them what solution I came up with."

"You came up with a solution already?" asked Rose, unable to hide that she was a bit impressed.

"Dreamt about it, actually," revealed James.

"Brilliant! Already interpreting dreams," joked Marty. "Too bad none of us signed up for Divination."

"No, too bad _you _convinced us to sign up for Ancient Runes instead," contended John.

"Divination's a rubbish option anyway, according to my dad," said James. "Besides, Care of Magical Creatures should be easy, at least. But will you guys let me tell you about my dream?"

"Who do you think I am, your psychologist?" asked Marty.

James rolled his eyes, ignored the question, and continued, "Anyway, I dreamt about that story my Dad's always telling us kids. How that horrible Umbridge cow came to teach one year, and a bunch of people from different houses joined a Defense Against the Dark Arts club called 'Dumbledore's Army. I reckon maybe we could start that up again. We could teach the younger students how to do simple defense spells like expelliarmus and things, and us older students could practice dueling with some of the less painful hexes or something.

"A dueling club?" asked Marty thoughtfully. "That could be fun."

"Won't interfere with Quidditch practice, will it?" asked John, who, like James, was a chaser for the team.

James rolled his eyes again. "I'd reckon not, given that I'd be _founding _the club and I'm also on the Quidditch team."

"Oh yeah," said John. "Sorry. You know how I get about Quidditch sometimes."

"Yes, just like your father, rumor has it," said James. "So you'd come to the club?"

"Of course, if you're going to run it. I don't reckon we'll get many people above our year, though. Won't like joining a club a third year made up," John pointed out.

"No matter... They'd just try to take over anyway. I might not even invite them. But we should be able to get a bunch of people from our year and under. I'll talk to McGonagall after Transfiguration about getting formal permission to start a club, and we can start making flyers tonight, if you three aren't too busy."

"Great!" said Rose, who was grateful to James not only for volunteering to start the club, but also for including her in the poster-making ordeal with his friends. He really was a good cousin, reflected Rose, as she smiled and took a bite from her bowl of cereal.

Meanwhile, on his way to the Slytherin table, Al spotted Chloe, once again with a free seat on each side of her.

"Well... How was your first night at Hogwarts?" asked Al as he sat down.

"Eh... Well, I slept well," said Chloe in a way that sounded a bit evasive.

"And how were your dorm mates?" asked Albus.

"Tolerable, I suppose," replied Chloe.

"Sounds better than mine, then," said Albus.

"Oh yeah? What's wrong with your dorm mates?" asked Chloe.

Al glanced around to make sure that no one around seemed to be listening. He wasn't sure whether any of his dorm mates had siblings in other years, and he didn't want to have to deal with any unnecessary fights.

"Oh, just hex-threats," said Al nonchalantly.

Chloe looked a bit concerned. "But they can't actually hex anyone, can they? They've not learned any magic yet, have they?" Al and Rose had both assured Chloe yesterday that no students would be any more able to do magic than she was on their first day of classes. It looked like she was afraid they might've just been lying to make her feel better.

"No, of course they can't hex me. We're all equally clueless about magic until we actually learn how to do some spells. And maybe the constant threat of getting into a duel with several of my dorm mates at once will motivate me to make sure I'm not slow to pick anything up," Al said.

Chloe laughed. "Quite the optimist, aren't you? Well, none of the girls in my dorm actively threatened me, but they all seem to be giving me the silent treatment. Originally, they just acted like they felt sorry for me for being from a muggle family, but when that didn't get to me, they just stopped talking to me. There is one, who doesn't seem to be as mean as the rest, who _could _be not talking to me just because she's a quiet person, though."

"Hmm... You'll have to keep me up to date on that one, then," Albus said.

"I most definitely-- Oh _wow _that's a lot of owls," said Chloe, whose attention had been diverted upward by the sound of an inordinate number of flapping wings.

"That it is," said Albus, who was rather surprised by seeing so many owls at once as well, although certainly not as surprised as Chloe would have been, given that Al had at least known that owls delivered mail before the previous day (Al had mentioned owl-post on the train, and it had been the first time Chloe heard of it, having received her Hogwarts letter in the muggle fashion).

"Oh, wow, you got a letter, too!" said Chloe, who seemed to be quite thrilled at seeing the owl, which Al immediately recognized as his brother's, as it swooped down in front of him. You had to hand it to muggle-borns, thought Al, they certainly appreciated the little things in the magical world a whole lot more than your average pure-blood did.

"It's from James," said Albus. "My brother," he added, after remembering that Chloe and James had never met.

"Wait, didn't you say he goes to school here? Why would he use an owl instead of just walking over and talking to you?" asked Chloe, confused.

"Well… James has a bit of a grand style. Plus, the owl was more fun, right?"

Chloe had to agree that it was, and nodded accordingly.

Al opened the letter which read simply,

_Oy, Al!_

_Meet me and Rose tonight twenty minutes after curfew, in the Great Hall. Bring a cloak, as it might be chilly. Also, Rose says you should bring Chloe, so... do that. _

_-James (and Rose!)_

Al grinned and passed the parchment to Chloe.

Chloe read the note, and looked around to check if anyone was listening before asking, "We're going to break the rules _already_?"

"Sure, why not get an early start?" asked Al.

"What if we get caught?" asked Chloe.

"Oh, we won't," said Al. "That's why we're bringing the cloak..." he trailed off. He was pretty sure no one was paying them any attention, but he didn't want to take the chance when talking about something so important as his father's invisiblity cloak.

It had caused a bit of an argument in the Potter household when Harry had insisted that his children should be allowed to take the invisibility cloak and the marauders' map with them to school. Al and James had both listened in on this particular argument, which had happened in the summer before James' first year, using extendable ears which their Uncle George had given the boys on the sly.

As Al recalled, the conversation went something like this:

"I think I'm going to give James the cloak and the Marauders' Map this year," said Harry.

"Why would you want to do that?" asked Ginny incredulously.

"Well, they came in pretty useful for me when I was in school. I'll give them both to James for the next two years, then once Al gets there, they can switch off, each getting one of the two until Lily gets into school, at which point one of them will have to not have anything, but they can share, and ought to share the things if one of their siblings really needs it," explained Harry. Albus and James had looked at each other excitedly at this point in the conversation. They had picked up enough from the stories their father told them to know just how useful the map and the cloak could be.

"But why would one of them _need_ the Marauders' Map or the Invisiblity cloak... the only reason _you _really needed them was because you were being hunted by Lord Voldemort and his entourage. Our kids don't have that problem, so they don't need the cloak or the map. If anything, you need the cloak more than they do, given that you're actually out trying to catch criminals" said Ginny.

"You and I both know that neither of us have used an invisiblity cloak in years. Disillusionment spells and whatnot work just as well. But the kids, since they aren't really at that level of magic, need to have the cloak if they don't want to be seen," countered Harry.

"They're just going to use it to get into mischief," said Ginny.

Even though Al and James were listening to this conversation from up the stairs, they could practically see Harry's grin as he responded to this point from their mother, "Well, I suppose that's just a decision they'll have to make on their own, then."

"Look, we really oughtn't to be _encouraging _our kids to cause trouble at Hogwarts," she stated.

"Oh, come now," said Harry. "These kids are Potters. And Weasleys. They're _going_ to get into trouble. The question is just whether or not they get caught. Just try to remember back to when you were that age."

Ginny laughed at that. "Yes, I suppose you've got a point about Potters and Weasleys being natural-born trouble makers. And they hang out with the other Weasley kids far too often as well... They can hardly be positive influences on them, can they? Why, I wouldn't be surprised if they were listening in on this conversation we're having right now."

At this, James and Albus looked at each other warily and pulled on their extendable ears, just in case their parents actually checked under the door for the magical eavesdropping devices. So they never quite new exactly how the argument managed to get solved, all they knew for sure was that the next day, Harry passed the Invisiblity Cloak and the Marauders' Map onto his son, with a wink and an admonishment to "use them well."

"Look, I'll explain later, you're just going to have to trust me for now," Al told Chloe.

Chloe grinned, "Oooh, this is exciting."

And it was indeed exciting, even for Al, who knew exactly what they were going to do. Using the invisibility cloak for his first time at Hogwarts promised to be quite an interesting experience, and the anticipation of that night's rule-breaking kept Al going through a rather double-potions period with Professor Anthros and an even more boring afternoon filled with History of Magic.

That evening, as curfew approached, Al and Rose sat in the common room doing their best to make sense of their first potions assignment. When he saw that it was about ten minutes until curfew, Al asked Chloe, "Fancy a quick walk, then?"

"Sure," said Chloe immediately.

They did their best to exit discretely, so that no one would think anything of it when they didn't return by curfew.

"We're going to need to get to a deserted hallway. Shouldn't be too hard since there's not many people out this late, anyway," said Al, who was carrying the invisibility cloak concealed in his school bag.

Eventually, they found an empty corridor.

"So how are we going to avoid getting caught?" asked Chloe, who was practically bursting with curiosity, as Al stopped to pull the cloak out of his bag.

When he did, Chloe gasped simply at the sight of the cloak, which looked like woven silver. "Ooooh, shiny!" she said. Then, before Al even had a chance to laugh at her reaction, she laughed at herself. "I may not have mentioned this before, but I have an uncanny attraction to shiny objects," Chloe explained.

"You sound like a niffler... Well, assuming they could talk, anyway," amended Al.

"What's a niffler, then?" asked Chloe, once again intrigued. In fact, Chloe was finding that her mental state since passing through to Platform 9 3/4 had been one of almost constant curiousity and wonder. It was rather exhausting, really.

"I'll explain later… Or, better yet, ask Hagrid when I introduce you to him. But for now, go check if anyone's coming from that end of the hallway," said Al.

"Er… ok," said Chloe, making her way to the end of the corridor to check that no one was coming, as Al double-checked the hallway that they had just come from.

"All clear, then?" asked Al. When Chloe nodded, he said. "All right, get in close, then, this needs to cover both of us."

Chloe stood right in front of Al. "But _why _does it need to-" she was cut off by her own gasp as Al placed the cloak over them and Chloe looked down to realize that she couldn't see herself.

"Pretty wicked, eh?" asked Al.

"Indeed," agreed Chloe, as they began to walk down the hallway toward the Great Hall.

They were pretty proud of themselves when they arrived only fifteen minutes later, having got lost just once, in spite of it still being their first day of navigating around the castle.

They ended up in the Great Hall about five minutes before James and Rose were set to arrive. The room was dim, lit only by the stars and a nearly-full moon.

"Reckon we ought to stay under this cloak, then, at least until your brother and Rose get here?" asked Chloe when they arrived.

"Yeah, that'd probably be the safest way to make sure we don't get caught by any wandering professors," agreed Al.

The result was that they spent the next five minutes talking in whispered voices about what they'd thought about their classes that day and standing awfully close to each other in an attempt to make sure the invisibility cloak didn't reveal either of them. But then, perhaps '_awfully_ close' was the wrong phrase to describe it, as Al was beginning to realize that he didn't much mind being close to Chloe. In fact, he was getting an odd urge to wrap his arms around her.

But before he was able to fully explore this train of thought, it was interrupted by James and Rose walking into the Great Hall.

"Oy, you two can take off that cloak, then, no one else is even in this part of the castle," said James, as he set the Marauders' Map down on the table. James had lit his wand using the "Lumos" charm, and was holding it over the map.

Al took off the cloak and rushed over to the table to take a look at the Marauders' Map, as it was the first time he had seen it while school was in session. The other times he'd looked, all he'd been able to see was Hagrid and Fang in Hagrid's cabin, and Filch and his cat puttering around the hallways of the school. Now the map showed hundreds of little dots, each with a name attached to it.

"It shows where everyone in the castle is," explained Al to Chloe, only to find that she wasn't looking over his shoulder as he had expected her to be. Instead, she and Rose were hugging as if they hadn't seen each other in months. Al reckoned he probably never would understand girls properly.

"I'm so sorry you got sorted into Gryffindor!" said Chloe.

"I'm not," said Rose with a grin. "At least I got sorted into the good house… But it's a pity you two couldn't have been, too," she finished with a small frown.

"But, as usual, I've come up with a solution to everyone's problems," said James grandly.

"Really? From what I can remember, you're usually _causing _problems instead of solving them," Al pointed out.

"True, but I do have a talent for solving those problems which I _don't _create, and this is one of those. So. Take a flyer!" commanded James, offering a flyer each to Al and Chloe. Meanwhile, he held his lit wand over a third flyer, so that Chloe and Al could actually read it in spite of the dark. It said:

**Defense Against the Dark Arts Club!**

**Come make new friends and learn cool spells years before you'd learn them in class! First meeting September 15, 7 pm in the Great Hall!**

"Nice use of exclamation marks," pointed out Albus.

"We were very excited," countered Rose with a smile.

"Sounds like it could be fun, though. Nice way to socialize with members of other houses," said Chloe nodding. "I'm already starting to get the feeling that I won't be socializing much with too many Slytherins."

"Too bad the first meeting's still two weeks off, though," said Al.

"You know, I was thinking about that," said James. "There's no reason why you lot can't meet up in the library when you're not in classes. I mean, it's a terribly nerdy thing to do, and you won't be able to get too rowdy, but it'll probably be better for you two than hanging out in the Slytherin common room too often."

"Sounds like a good plan," said Chloe, eagerly.

Al and Rose each nodded in agreement.

James, who had just glanced at the map, swore.

"Hey, James, little ears," said Rose, pointing at Al's ear.

James didn't laugh. "It's that damn Himmel kid. He's not even on patrol duty. It was only supposed to be Filch and two prefects out tonight. Filch never leaves his office anymore until an hour after curfew… grown lazy in his old age… and the prefects are always at least ten minutes late, and Filch's stupid cat is easy enough to stun if she catches us, so I thought we'd be all right. But Himmel just left the Slytherin common room and is heading this way."

"Himmel? That's the prefect who came over and greeted us yesterday, wasn't it?" asked Chloe.

"Well, he's a bastard," said James. When Chloe, Rose, and Al laughed at this, he said, "No, seriously, stay away from him, he's not a good guy"

"Why?" asked Al.

"No time to explain now," said James. "We're going to need to break up this little shindig if that prying git has decided to put himself on patrol duty tonight. Put that cloak back on, and try to stay in hallways that are wide enough that you can dodge him if he starts coming your way… Remember, the cloak just makes you invisible, you're still solid."

"Right… well… we haven't really memorized which hallways are wide enough to dodge in…" admitted Al.

"Oh, that's right, I keep forgetting you lot have just had your first day… All right… Take the map, and give it back to Rose tomorrow when you meet in the library after class. You remember how to wipe it, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, 'mischief managed'" said Al.

"All right. Rose and I should be all right without it… Himmel's coming from the opposite direction that we're going, so the worse we'll run into is the two Gryffindor kids who were _supposed _to be on duty tonight. One of them's on the Quidditch team, so they won't give us detention," said James. "Good luck, and by the way: This is why you don't leave a common room ten minutes before curfew. People notice when you don't come back, especially if they're as nosy as Himmel. Consider this your first marauding lesson."

"Thanks," said Al, rolling his eyes at his brother's superior tones, but still mentally kicking himself for making such a stupid mistake. Chloe and Al managed to make it back to the common room unscathed. Chloe slipped out from under it on the stairs to the girls' dorms and Al removed it from up the stairs to the boys' dorms, so that each could come down the stairs pretending that they had just been up in their rooms.

"Exciting night, then, eh?" asked Chloe with a grin when she and Al had sat down together on a couch in the corner of the room.

Even though Al was still angry at himself for tipping Himmel off that they were leaving, and rather annoyed at James for not telling them _why_ Himmel was apparently evil, he couldn't help but returning Chloe's grin.

A/N: Please tell me what you think. I'm still pretty busy, but reviews will help convince me to procrastinate by working on fanfiction.


	5. The DA

A/N: To anyone patient enough to still read this after it's been so long since my last update: thanks, and sorry about the long wait. This isn't an easy story to write, plus, I've had a lot else on my mind lately. Anyway, thanks to betherny for her encouraging PM, which motivated me to get this chapter out tonight instead of waiting even longer.

Chapter 5

The DA

Rose, Al, and Chloe settled into the rhythm of school pretty much as quickly as could be expected. Following James' advice, they met in the library, and all of them soon got over the fact that they weren't making a lot of friends outside of their little group of three.

For Al and Chloe, of course, this made a fair bit of sense. No one had expected Al to make friends with many of the Slytherins, and Chloe seemed almost to be making a concerted effort _not _to fit in with the girls in her dorm, most of whom she considered to be pure-blood snobs.

Rose got along well with James and his friends Marty and John, but this seemed to alienate her from the other girls in her year to some degree.

When she complained about this to Al and Chloe in the library one day (in whispered tones, of course, when Madam Pince was clear on the other side of the room), Chloe just nodded in understanding and said she expected the other girls in her dorm were jealous.

"Yeah, well, no great loss. They snore terribly anyway," said Rose, as if this justified not trying to be friends with them.

There was a rather lengthy silence, as Madame Pince came closer to their corner of the library. They'd already been told off twice that week for being too loud, and the last time she'd threatened to ban them from the library for a month if they couldn't learn to be quiet. These long periods of enforced silences were the only part about their little sanctuary in the library that annoyed Chloe.

"Fancy a walk around the grounds?" asked Chloe in a whisper, as Madame Pince made her way to a far-away shelf to put a book away.

"Sure," said Albus.

"Isn't it cold out today?" asked Rose.

"Oh, come on… If it's cold, you can borrow my cloak, I have it in my bag," said Chloe.

"Why?" asked Al, as the three of them got up and started packing stuff into their bags.

"You never know when you might need a cloak," pointed out Chloe. She knew this might sound like an odd position to hold, but then again, the circumstances had just proven her right, hadn't they? She'd actually packed the cloak mostly because she hadn't been intending to stay in the library too long that afternoon. She was in a bit of an antsy mood, and had thought that a walk on the grounds might be a nice diversion.

Once they got out of the library and into the hallway, they were able to speak more freely to one another.

"So are you guys looking forward to the DA meeting this Saturday as much as I am?" asked Al, as the three of them noticed one of the many fliers that Rose and James had hung up around the school.

"Of course," said Chloe. The meeting was only two days away, and she was looking forward to trying out some new spells.

"It'll be fun to meet some new people, too," pointed out Rose.

"Yes, 'cause you two are getting right tiresome," pointed out Chloe, with a smile. Rose laughed, but Al looked confused for a second before laughing along with Rose. "You didn't realize I was being sarcastic at first, did you?"

"Oh, I did too!" contradicted Al immediately.

"You know, there's no shame in not having a sarcastic personality," said Rose. "Means you're genuine."

Al just rolled his eyes.

"It's not like he's not sarcastic himself sometimes, though," Chloe pointed out to Rose. "He just never seems to get my sarcasm right away. Especially when it's something where I'm sarcastically making fun of him."

"That's not even true!" protested Al, starting to blush.

Chloe could tell that the topic was bothering Al, so she tactfully changed the subject. Still, she couldn't help but wonder whether there might be something to her observation.

The trio stopped by Hagrid's cabin that afternoon for a spot of tea, getting their first exposure to Hagrid's cooking as a result. After Rose almost chipped a tooth on her first rock-hard biscuit, she discreetly fed the rest to Fang the boarhound.

Rose remembered from stories that her parents and uncle had told her that Hagrid had owned Fang for at least two decades now, and she knew enough about how long dogs lived in the Muggle world to know that some pretty strong magical potions must have been involved in allowing the dog to live that long.

"How're you two getting on in Slytherin?" Hagrid asked Chloe and Al. This was not the first time that Chloe had met Hagrid. Rose and Al had taken her along when they visited Hagrid on their first weekend at school.

"As well as can be expected," said Chloe, who had gotten used to the concept of Hagrid much quicker than Rose might have expected. Rose and Al had known Hagrid since their early childhood, as he would come to their houses for tea every once in awhile. But Chloe had naturally never seen Hagrid until he led them onto the boats on their first night at Hogwarts. Still, she didn't seem at all intimidated by him.

Hagrid narrowed his eyes at this comment, clearly realizing that getting along 'as well as can be expected' with the Slytherins might not be saying terribly much. "You haven't been getting into any duels, have you?" asked Hagrid.

"Of course not!" said Al immediately. "We don't even know any spells that would be useful in duels yet!"

Hagrid's laugh boomed out across the room at this comment. "Wouldn't've stopped your father," he pointed out jovially. Then, apparently remembering that he had been trying to convince Al _not _to get in duels, he continued, "But that was very foolish of him."

The rest of the evening passed pleasantly. By the time they left Hagrid's cabin, it was already dark and they barely had time to make it back to their common rooms before curfew. Hagrid had insisted upon walking them back up to the castle, as if he thought they were afraid of the dark or something. Rose noticed that Chloe and Al looked fairly annoyed that Hagrid insisted on this, but Rose didn't mind. She knew Hagrid's heart was in the right place. And that was all that mattered really, wasn't it?

That Saturday afternoon in the Slytherin common room, before the first DA meeting, Chloe decided to go out on a limb and ask Brittany whether she wanted to come to the meeting.

Chloe figured that it was a bit of a long-shot that she'd say yes, given that the longest sentence Brittany had spoken to her so far had been "Excuse me." But, then again, Brittany was also the only one of Chloe's five dorm-mates who had not yet called her a mud-blood. And Brittany didn't speak much to the other girls in their dorm much either, so Chloe got the feeling that maybe her lack of communication with Chloe was nothing personal.

So, Chloe told Al, who was sitting next to her on a couch, working on some reading for their potions class, that she'd be right back, and made her way over to the chair in the corner where Brittany was working on some homework of her own, her blonde head bent low over an essay.

Brittany didn't look up when Chloe walked over to her, and Chloe figured that she must be really involved in her essay. "Hey, Brittany," she ventured in a tone of voice much more tentative than she was accustomed to use.

Brittany still appeared quite startled at the interruption, and blotted her essay with ink as her quill dropped from her hand.

"I'm sorry," said Chloe sincerely, noticing the damage done to the essay.

"It's ok," said Brittany stiffly.

Chloe could hardly blame Brittany for the less than warm reception, given that she would probably have to rewrite the essay if she didn't want points off for neatness. Chloe was almost tempted to end the conversation right there, thinking it highly unlikely that Brittany would now be receptive to any invitation from Chloe. But she figured that she might as well make this trek across the common room have been worth something, so she continued.

"Well, have you seen the fliers for the Defense Against the Dark Arts club?" asked Chloe.

"Er… yeah," answered Brittany, with the air of someone who really had no idea at all where the present conversation might be going.

"Well, if you wanted to come by this evening, we'd love for you to come out!" said Chloe, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible in spite of the awkward start to this conversation.

"It's in the Great Hall, right?" asked Brittany, after a couple seconds of consideration.

"Yeah, at seven o' clock," confirmed Chloe, encouraged by this show of interest from Brittany. "Al and I were going to just going to stick around late after dinner. You can feel free to sit with us, if you want."

"Sure," said Brittany.

"Excellent. See you then," said Chloe, then walked back over to Al.

After dinner ended that night, about 25 people, mostly from first, second, and third year, stuck around for the Defense Against the Dark Arts club meeting.

Rose figured that it was mostly due to James' popularity that so many people had taken time out of their weekend to come to a club in which the participants would basically be learning, even if they were studying Defense Against the Dark Arts, which many students found to be the most exciting course offered at the school.

Rose already knew a few of the kids. Andrew Longbottom, for instance, was a second year Gryffindor, who had visited Rose's house along with his parents on a few occasions. Andrew's father, of course, was Neville Longbottom, and his mother was Susan Bones (or, had been, before she took Neville's name). Two of the other Gryffindor first year girls had come, too, and three of the boys, but Rose didn't particularly feel like trying to talk to them.

Instead, as Professor Flitwick moved the tables so that the club would have a place to meet, Rose went over to where the Slytherin table had been, and approached Chloe, Al, and some Slytherin first year whose name she couldn't remember, who were the only Slytherins who stayed.

"Hi, Rose, this is Brittany," said Chloe.

"Hi, Brittany, nice to meet you," said Rose. Rose was glad that Chloe and Al had found another Slytherin who was interested in attending the club, but was also a little bit annoyed that they seemed to have made more friends in their year in Slytherin than she had made in her year in Gryffindor. It wasn't as if she was anti-social or anything, was it?

Partially so that she could answer the previous question in the negative, she made a particular effort to be really friendly to Brittany.

"What's your family like, then?" she asked.

"Er… They're all right, I guess," said Brittany hesitantly. Seeming to realize that her slow response might require some explanation, she added, "They're pure-bloods, and rather proud of it. Well… my parents are… My little brother's only 7, so I'm not sure if he's quite clear on what pure blood _is _yet."

"Oh. I'm half-blood," said Rose conversationally, although her voice quite betrayed that she was rather proud of her half-blood status. "My Dad's side is wizards pretty much all the way back, but my mum's a muggle-born."

"I never have been able to wrap my head around how you lot determine blood status," Chloe registered. "If both your parents are magical, I don't see how you can say you're half-muggle."

"Yeah… Well… it's people like my parents who would disagree with you, there," countered Brittany. "I'm not saying they're right or anything, of course. I just don't understand why it even _matters_ what kind of blood your parents have. 'Course, I'd never let my parents hear me say that."

"You don't seem to let _most_ people hear you say a lot," pointed out Chloe. "I've heard you talk more tonight than I ever have before. I'm glad, of course. You should talk more!"

Rose noticed Brittany start to blush a bit at this analysis of her social short-comings. "_And _you should ignore Chloe," added Rose. "She's got two settings, blunt and sarcastic. She means well, though, she just can't help how she comes off. This is why we normally don't let her talk to new people."

Brittany grinned a little at this, but was still blushing. She was saved the necessity of having to respond to either of the girls by the fact that James chose that moment to call the meeting to order by emitting a small-scale puff of smoke and exploding-sound from his wand.

It was lucky, James thought, that he was used to being the center of attention on a fairly regular basis, or else the 25 pairs of eyes that turned toward him would have made him nervous. As it was, however, he grinned slightly at his friend John, who had suggested the method of getting everyone's attention, and then cleared his throat to begin, "First of all, I thought it might be fitting to fill everyone in a bit on the inspiration for this club," at this point, he looked toward Rose and winked at her, in an attempt to indicate that even though she was the real inspiration for the club, her name wouldn't actually be mentioned. He figured it would only embarrass her if it was. James knew that his cousin was not quite as comfortable with being in the public eye as he was.

James continued. "Back when my parents, and most of yours, were going to Hogwarts, there was an old hag named Umbridge who the ministry forced the legendary Headmaster Dumbledore to use as his Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. Given that Umbridge refused to teach her students anything in spite of the fact that anyone with a brain knew that a war with Voldemort was about to start, my Dad and his friends started a club called Dumbledore's Army to teach people how to do Defense Against the Dark Arts. And even though old Professor Simmons is no hag…" James' voice trailed off as he spotted Professor Flitwick, who was acting as the faculty supervisor for the club, in the corner and decided that it would be best not to discuss Professor Simmons' professional shortcomings in front of him. "Anyway, it'll be nice to have some extra practice, even though there's no war coming at this point. Being able to protect oneself is always a good thing. Besides, another effect of the club when my Dad was running it was that it promoted inter-house unity, which is always a good thing, except during Quidditch matches. And we've already got one up on the old version of the club, as there are already three students in Slytherin from this one!" added James as an afterthought. He motioned toward Al, Chloe, and the Slytherin girl who they were standing with.

Al and Chloe each took a slight bow as a couple of people, led by Marty and John, started to spontaneously applaud the presence of the Slytherins. The other girl didn't bow, but simply turned a deeper shade of red than she already had been. James never could understand shy people…

After James' little speech, he told the group that the first spell they'd learn would be expelliarmus. It was simple enough, he said, that even the first years should be able to get it to work by the end of the session, and the older students could use their time by trying to dodge the spells that their partners would aim at them and try to hold on to their wand longer. After demonstrating the spell with Marty, he instructed everyone to find a partner.

"Want to be my partner, then?" Rose asked Brittany. Rose was still trying to prove to herself that she was not anti-social.

"Er… Sure," said Brittany, somewhat hesitantly. Rose assumed that the hesitance here was owing to the fact that she had probably reckoned she'd be partners with Chloe, as she knew her better than she knew Rose.

Oh well, thought Rose, if this girl was going to be hanging around Chloe, that no doubt meant she'd be hanging out around Rose a lot as well. She'd have to get used to her eventually.

Of course, Chloe and Al were left to pair with each other, which Al looked pretty pleased about. Rose rolled her eyes slightly at his obvious enthusiasm. Didn't the two of them spend enough time together in the Slytherin common room? Oh well, Rose decided that she couldn't very well be offended with Al for preferring Chloe as a partner since she herself had just chosen Brittany over him.

"All right," said James. "You can get practicing. I'm going to walk around and observe you a bit. And by the way, just remember, this isn't class or anything, so there's no problem with chatting a bit. You want to learn the spells and all, but this is supposed to be fun, too."

Everyone spaced themselves a few meters from their partners.

"So… you ready, then?" Rose asked.

"Sure," said Brittany.

"You want to try first?" urged Rose.

Brittany lifted her wand awkwardly, as if she was afraid it might fly out of her grasp and up to the ceiling. Rose thought it was rather lucky that Brittany's parents weren't there to see her. Judging from what she'd said about it so far, they'd be quite ashamed that their child looked so awkward holding a wand. Pure-bloods, at least according to the snobby elitist types, were supposed to be naturals at magic.

"Expelliarmus!" muttered Brittany tentatively. Rose wasn't at all surprised when her wand didn't move even a little bit.

Rose shook her head. "You've got to sound more confident. And hold your wand more confidently, too."

Brittany looked downright perplexed as to how she was meant to hold her wand confidently.

"Try it like this," said Rose kindly, then raised her wand, concentrating hard on the image of Brittany's wand flying across the room. "Expelliarmus!" she said sternly, in much the same voice as she often heard her mother use when doing cleaning spells around the house. Simultaneously, she flicked her wand, which she had pointed at Brittany's wand, upward slightly.

Brittany's wand released itself from her grasp, floated unenthusiastically about to her eye-level, then toppled to the ground.

"Rosy!" James shouted from across the room. He sounded so enthusiastic that she didn't even care that he called her 'Rosy,' which she normally counted as one of the childish names that she didn't like being called. "Was that your first try?" he asked.

"Er, yeah," said Rose, somewhat proudly.

"Great!" congratulated James. "It took me about three times before I got anything to budge when I taught myself the spell in first year." James walked over.

"You taught the spell to yourself?" asked Rose, clearly impressed.

"Well, I mean, Dad told me the incantation and everything. Not too complicated from there, right? Well. You'd know that," he said with a grin.

Rose grinned back.

"You'll want to put a bit more force into it, of course," added James. "If it only goes a foot into the air, your enemy could catch the thing again. But that'll come with practice. I think you're the first one to disarm your partner other than Marty and John, and they've known the spell for a year. Anyway… keep practicing, but just know that was very impressive."

"Thanks, James," said Rose sincerely. Since James was two years older than her, and since she had been around him a lot growing up, she'd always kind of looked up to him. It was always nice to hear him praise her.

Rose looked back over to Brittany. She looked like she was trying to decide whether to be impressed or jealous about Rose's quick progress.

"Yeah, so, why don't you try it again?" asked Rose encouragingly.

"All right," said Brittany. She grasped her wand in what Rose thought was a slightly more confident manner and pointed her wand at Rose's. "Expelliarmus!" she said clearly, and jerked up a bit.

Rose felt a bit of a tug. She loosened her grip a bit, hoping the wand would free itself, but it was too late. Rose almost considered dropping it anyway, but figured that Brittany would get a little suspicious if the wand just dropped straight down instead of floating upward like Rose's had. "You almost had it, though!" said Rose as she noticed Brittany frown in frustration. "I felt a tug!"

"Really?" asked Brittany doubtfully. Rose was glad she hadn't dropped the wand on purpose. If she was suspicious about Rose saying she felt a tug, she certainly would have caught on to a dropped wand.

"Really," said Rose, hoping that Brittany believed her.

"All right," said Brittany. "Well, maybe I'll get it next time, then. Anyway, your go."

"Right," said Rose. "Expelliarmus!"

This time Brittany's wand did less than last time. Just hopped a few inches. Brittany managed to catch it on the way down.

"James was right, then," said Rose, giggling a bit. "Nice catch."

"Thanks," said Brittany with a small smile. "Expelliarmus!"

This time, Rose had loosened her grip before the spell was fired at her, but she was still quite shocked when her wand jumped three feet into the air.

"Good job!" said Rose, confident that she'd have been disarmed whether she'd loosened her grip or not.

"Thanks," said Brittany, smiling much broader this time.

The next hour went quite well, with both of them quickly reaching the point where the wand tore itself from even a tight grip, and sailed several feet backward. Rose's spell was still a bit stronger than Brittany's, and neither was as strong as James' Marty's or John's. But it certainly wasn't bad for an hour's work.

Chloe and Al had a good time with their disarming practice as well, although Al found himself quite perturbed that Chloe seemed to be better at it than he was. Although it took each of them until the third or fourth try to make their opponent's wand do anything at all, Chloe progressed much quicker to the point where Al was properly disarmed and scrambling for a wand several feet behind him. Chloe seemed to find it amusing to catch her wand in the air once it had gotten away from her owing to Albus' rather weak spell. She often caught it while it was still on the way up.

Soon, Al was gripping his wand tight enough to make his knuckles turn white when Chloe took her turn and practically shouting the word Expelliarmus when it came to his turn.

Finally Al managed to knock Chloe's wand out of her hand and far enough behind her that it nearly hit a third year who was practicing about ten feet behind her. Chloe seemed so happy at his progress that he felt a little bit guilty about resenting hers.

From then on, the DADA club met once a week, learning a new useful but uncomplicated spell each week. James continued to be impressed by Rose's quick progress and decided that next time he saw his uncle Ron and aunt Hermione, he'd have to tell them that she was one of the quickest learners there.

She wasn't the only one to be impressed by, though. Al was the quickest first or second year to pull off a shield charm and Chloe managed to get a stunning charm to work on her first try.

At one point, it occurred to James that by helping Al, Chloe, and Brittany with their spell-work, he might be helping Slytherin improve its house score, as Professor Simmons often gave points to the first student to master a particular spell in class. Over the past few years, it'd usually been Slytherin and Gryffindor neck and neck for the first two spots for the House cup, so he was a bit wary of this fact.

Still, the club was enough fun for all involved that James supposed he would take the risk. Besides, there were many more Gryffindors in the club than Slytherins, and by the time the students were heading home for Christmas break, Gryffindor was still ahead of Slytherin by a good twenty points.

A/N: Right… so the next chapter should be about the Christmas break. I realize that this chapter covered a lot of time with not so much writing, but I do want to get things to the point where Lily's in school, too, so things might go kind of fast until Lily and Hugo get into first year… which should still be a year and a half ahead, if I've got my math right. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please review… reviews really do help motivate me to write…


	6. Empty Nest

Chapter Six

Empty-Nest Syndrome

Ginny had always prided herself on being able to sense her husband's emotional needs. Thus, during autumn, when she noticed that Harry was not sleeping as much at night, she thought he was missing James and Al. This suspicion was confirmed by the fact that every morning when they were eating breakfast together, Ginny noticed Harry perk up at the slightest noise and look eagerly to the window as if anticipating an owl. And whenever there _was_ an owl, Harry would be noticeably disappointed if it was from anyone but Al or James, even if it was from Teddy, who Harry was normally thrilled to hear from.

Of course, James had been gone for the past two years as well, but this year was different. Now there were two kids out of the house, and one in. Now a majority of their children were out of the house during school, and Harry simply didn't seem to be taking it all too well. Of course, he spent a lot of time with Lily when he was home, but she would be leaving in less than two years now, and having just one kid at home wasn't the same anyway.

Ginny also felt that the house was a bit lonely without James and Al, but she knew she wasn't taking it as bad as Harry. She figured it was harder for him because he hadn't had a real family growing up. Unless you counted the Dursleys, which Ginny certainly didn't. The prats didn't even come to their wedding.

Their wedding, of course, had been the day when Harry legally became a part of the family that had always accepted him as their own. After that, Ginny and Harry set about starting a family of their own. And now, two members of that new family were away, and Ginny figured that Harry was starting to feel a bit lonely. Of course, it wasn't like he was flat out depressed or anything. It was a subtle thing. Probably not even something most people would have noticed. But Ginny did.

Therefore, she had decided to make the upcoming Christmas as special as possible. And the best way to make Harry forget about the approaching onset of Empty Nest syndrome, Ginny felt, was to make their nest as full as possible this Christmas.

She broached the subject over breakfast one morning in late November, after the post had disappointingly yielded no letters from Al or James, but still long before Lily was accustomed to roll out of bed. "What would you think about having the whole family over for Christmas?" asked Ginny. It had been years since Arthur and Molly and all of their kids and grandkids had gotten together in one place. It wasn't because they didn't want to see each other, but the sheer logistics of getting that many people together made things a bit difficult. Still, Ginny had thought about it and reckoned that their house in Gryffindor's Hollow (which stood nearby the site of the old Potter House) would be just big enough, provided that they had some people sit in the dining room while others sat in the living room.

Harry's face perked up quite dramatically from the dejected look it had acquired after the owl had come bearing an advertisement for Foe-Glasses rather than a letter from one of his sons. "That'd be amazing!' said Harry, clearly excited.

One of the things about Harry that Ginny still loved the most was his almost uncontrollable excitement when he heard an idea that he was particularly enthusiastic about. And apparently, she had just struck upon such an idea. She was quite glad that she had.

One week later, at the beginning of December, the morning post in Hogwarts great Hall brought the following invitation to each of the Weasley and Potter children. Of course, the parents had already been invited to the event, and had all decided that they would come, but Ginny had decided that formal invitations through the post would be a fun way to inform the kids of the party. After all, she had not forgotten how exciting it could be to get a letter over breakfast.

Chloe looked over Al's shoulder as he read his letter.

_Albus Potter,_

_You are cordially invited to a Weasley Family Christmas, this Christmas (December 25__th__, in case they haven't taught you to read a calendar, at that school of yours). Feel free to invite any friends who were planning on staying at Hogwarts for Christmas. We've got plenty of couches at our house in Gryffindor Hollow if people need to stay over. Anyway, I hope you're enjoying your year so far, and see you at Christmas._

_-Ginny Potter_

Chloe was a bit confused about a couple of the letter's finer points. "Er… Why's she writing like you two aren't related?" she asked.

Albus did his best to look angry as he said, "Do you always read other people's post, Baron?" However, Chloe noticed that, characteristically, Albus was not quite able to keep a straight face through his charade of anger.

"Oh, come off it, Potter, you know you were going to let me read it when you were finished anyway. Now answer my question," commanded Chloe.

"I think she sent the same invitation to everyone. That's why it was cordial," explained Albus.

"It wasn't, really," observed Chloe.

"Yes, well… That was what she was going for, anyway, I think. But then she couldn't keep herself from making the joke about us not knowing when Christmas was. And from there the whole thing just went straight to Hufflepuff's toilet."

Chloe giggled slightly at the reference to Hufflepuff's toilet. She, Al, Rose and Brittany had been doing their best to invent as many wizard-related expressions as they could lately. This had been brought on when Chloe had made the apt observation about how different figures of speech seemed to be between the muggle and wizarding world. Once they recognized the distinction, the four friends for some reason felt the need to exaggerate it.

"Hufflepuff's toilet, eh?" asked Brittany, sitting down across from Al. Brittany had been spending a lot of time with Chloe, Al, and Rose lately, and was quite getting over her shyness, at least with the three of them.

"Well, I suppose that's as good a way as any to say good morning," observed Al.

"What were you guys talking about?" asked Brittany, helping herself to some eggs.

"Just my Mum's formal Christmas party invitation," said Al.

"Your Mum seems like a fun person," pointed out Chloe.

"Yeah, well… She can be," Al agreed. "When she's not peeved off at one of us kids."

"I reckon you probably deserve it most of the time," noted Brittany sagely. Once she had become friends with Chloe, Al, and Rose, Brittany had been introduced to the invisibility cloak as well. She had accompanied Chloe and Al on several late-night escapades to the kitchens or other random locations within the castle, sometimes meeting up with Rose, who James allowed to borrow the Marauder's map so she could avoid patrollers. Thus, she had gotten the idea into her head that Al was some sort of a trouble-maker. And, of course, everyone knew that James liked to cause trouble. So, really, Brittany had every reason to believe that Ginny would be justified in yelling at them sometimes.

There was a short silence while everyone ate various bits of breakfast. Then, Chloe said, "So… are you going to follow the instructions from the invitation?"

"What?" asked Al.

"Well, it said to feel free to invite any friends who were planning to stay at Hogwarts…" said Chloe.

"Oh!" said Al. "I had no idea you weren't going home! Why didn't you mention it before?"

"I don't know… Just didn't," said Chloe, in an uncharacteristically hesitant voice. Al figured it was probably best not to pry.

"Well, you should definitely stay over, then. If I ask my parents, they might let you stay over for the whole break. If you'd want to, I mean," said Al. "Anyway… Do you want to come, too, Brittany?"

"I can't… I'm going home. And… I don't think my parents would be too thrilled to hear that I was going to spend the Christmas break with a bunch of Potters, anyway."

"Oh, right," said Al.

"I don't suppose they'd want to know you hung out with Al and me at all, then," pointed out Chloe.

"I suppose you're right," agreed Brittany.

"Maybe you should tell them that you hang out with a bunch of pure-blood snobs," suggested Chloe. "You know, make them proud."

"You probably shouldn't call them 'pure-blood snobs,' though," clarified Al, as if she wouldn't know better on her own.

"Oh, no, of course not," pointed out Chloe, playing along. "I think 'young witches and wizards of noble stock' would sound quite nice, though."

Brittany grinned. "Or maybe 'proud heirs of the magical tradition'?"

They spent the rest of breakfast coming up with ever more creative lies that Brittany could tell her parents to make them think she was befriending the sort of people who they would approve of.

Later that month, when Al, Rose, and Chloe were saying goodbye to Brittany before getting off the train (they decided that they would not let Brittany's parents see Brittany talking to someone who was so obviously related to Harry Potter), they realized that it would be the first time in over three months that they didn't talk to Brittany on a daily basis. They promised, of course, to write each other regularly over break.

When they got off the train, Al, Chloe, and Rose all headed over to the spot on the platform where Ginny, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Lily, and Hugo were all waiting for them.

"You must be Chloe," said Lily, in an uncharacteristically stiff voice, as she extended a hand.

"And you must be Lily!" said Chloe. "Al's told me lots about you!"

Chloe was in no way keeping the formal tone that Lily had apparently decided on for this occasion. But that did not stop her from valiantly attempting to keep up the formality.

"Albus, she said, nodding.

"Lily," he answered, just as formal.

Lily smirked with slight satisfaction that he had consented to play along with her game. Apparently, however, her smirk was what broke the illusion of formality, and Al grinned as he tousled her hair. She squirmed away from him, as if she was annoyed at getting her hair messed up, but Al knew that she wasn't, as her smirk had developed into a full-fledged laugh.

By this time, James had finally made his way over to the group, after saying goodbye to Marty and John. Al and Chloe moved on to greet Harry and Ginny as James hugged Lily.

Ginny hugged and kissed Al, then hugged Chloe as well, which was something that Chloe looked slightly embarrassed about. Al figured that Chloe would have to get used to being embarrassed semi-regularly, if she was going to be spending much time around his mother. And she would, apparently, be spending a good amount of time around her over the vacation, as his parents had, upon hearing that Chloe did not plan to go home over break, suggested that Al invite her to stay with them. Chloe had, of course, agreed, but only after Al had insisted several times that she would in no way be intruding upon their holiday festivities.

Harry, after hugging Al, turned to Chloe. "Hi, it's nice to meet you," he said, and extended a hand.

Chloe looked a little star-struck before reaching out and accepting the handshake. Al was slightly amused by this. He knew that Chloe was normally more self-assured than him, and this was an almost refreshing change. He had almost forgotten that it might be weird for Chloe to meet the man who had only 19 years before saved the wizarding world.

But Chloe recovered herself nicely, saying, "Nice to meet you as well." After the handshake was over, she paused for a second, then added, "It's really hard to believe that you and Al are related. You look so different!"

Al reflected that it was a tribute to Chloe's copious practice with sarcasm that she was able to keep a straight face for almost a solid two seconds before breaking into a grin.

"Hi, Hugo," said Al. "How's life been treating you?"

"Boring. I need to be at Hogwarts," complained Hugo.

"Yes, well, at least these next few weeks won't be boring, right?" asked Al.

"Right!" agreed Hugo. "Only 3 days 'til Christmas!"

As this conversation was going on, the two families were making their ways out to their respective cars. Soon, the Potters and Chloe said good-bye to the Weasleys, and made their way home.

Over the next few days, Ginny was amazed at how well Chloe seemed to blend into the family. Not only did she get along well with Albus and James, but she also got along spectacularly with Lily. Not that Lily was hard to get along with or anything. But, being a girl in Hogwarts, Ginny had experienced firsthand the legendary cattiness of the majority of Slytherin girls. Although she supposed that at least part of this reputation might have been exaggerated by the Gryffindor girls who did not like the Slytherins much anyway, Ginny was still quite shocked that Chloe was so friendly.

Unfortunately, Ginny was spending so much time preparing for the upcoming Christmas celebrations that she did not get nearly as much time to talk to Chloe as she would have liked to. She wanted to get to know her because Al was clearly very close with her. In his letters home, he mentioned Chloe even more than he talked about Rose, who had been his closest friend all through childhood. Of course, it made sense that he would have more to say about Chloe, since she, being in his house, would be around him more often. The point was, if someone was going to be so big a part of her son's life as Chloe clearly was of Al's, then she felt that she should make an effort to get to know her.

However, she hardly had any time to accomplish this goal before Christmas day.

"Wake up, James! Wake up, Al!" shouted Lily, running into James' room on Christmas morning. Al was kipping on the floor in James' room, since Chloe was staying in Al's bed. However, Chloe was currently not in Al's bed, but was instead following behind Lily, who was pulling on her with one hand. With the hand that Lily was not pulling on, Chloe was still wiping sleep out of her eyes.

James, thinking relatively fast for someone who had just been woken up so unexpectedly, managed to accurately aim a pillow at Lily, hitting her square in the chest.

"Come on! Come on! Mom says we can't open presents until we're all down there!" said Lily, dancing from foot to foot as if she had to pee very badly.

"All right, all right," said Al, grabbing the bag of presents for his family members and Chloe which he had stashed under James' bed.

"Oooh, right, presents! I need to get the ones I made for you lot!" said Chloe, who then ran from the room.

"What, she forgot that Christmas involves presents?" asked James, as he finally pulled himself from beneath his covers, grabbing his own bag of presents.

"I don't reckon this one will have given her much time to think before dragging her out into the hallway," said Al, motioning toward his sister.

Lily stuck her tongue out.

A few minutes later, they were all gathered in the living room to open presents.

Once Chloe was finished opening presents that the various Potters had given her, she felt somewhat embarrassed. After all, she had not bought anything for anyone, since she had no way of getting into Hogsmeade, and also didn't have much money to be spending on gifts anyway. Her father had always given her an allowance before, but had stopped after she got her Hogwarts letter. She had been too surprised about the fact that she was a witch to really take too much note of the end of her own personal income, and it wasn't like she needed money at school. But when Christmas rolled around, she became painfully aware that she didn't really have money to buy presents for anyone.

She had thought of asking someone if she could borrow some, but she would have felt stupid borrowing money from Al, Rose, or Brittany simply to use it to buy presents for them. So, instead, she had drawn a picture for each Al, James, Rose, and Brittany. She even drew one for, Lily, becoming inspired after she had a conversation about how much Lily said she couldn't wait to see Hogwarts. Chloe had drawn her a picture of the school, drawing on as much as she could remember of what the outside of the castle looked like, but using a bit of creative license when she couldn't. For Al, she had drawn a picture of Brittany, Al, and herself, sitting on a couch in the Slytherin common-room. For James, she drew a picture of him in a Quidditch match, using what she remembered from the Gryffindor match with Hufflepuff a month before. Each of them claimed to really like the pictures, and Al even seemed really impressed at her drawing ability, but Chloe still couldn't help but wonder whether the gifts she had given out were a suitable response to the small pile that she had sitting in front of her. Harry and Ginny, without even really knowing her, had gotten her a book called _A Muggle's Guide to the Wizarding World_. Lily had given her some Drooble's Best Bubblegum. James had given her a box of skiving snack-boxes. Al had actually gotten her two presents, although he had tried to be slick about it by wrapping them together: a quill and a large box of Bert's Every Flavor Beans.

Al said, "The quill, by the way, is a 'Never-Lost-Quill'. I've noticed you always seem to be losing yours. This one, if it is left unattended for more than 10 minutes, automatically puts itself back in your bookbag. You just have to activate it by doing a really simple spell. Cool, huh?"

"Yeah," said Chloe, who was still feeling a bit too uncomfortable about what she considered to be an uneven exchange of gifts to sound too enthusiastic.

"And you like the Bertie-Bott's Beans, right?" asked Al eagerly. "I thought you said that they were your favorite wizarding candy?"

He seemed to be able to tell that Chloe was less than enthused, and she knew that all he wanted was confirmation that he had gotten her good gifts, so she did her best to sound enthusiastic as she answered his question. "Yeah, they are. I like them 'cause they remind me of muggle-jelly-beans, only they're more fun because they're riskier. You never know what flavor you're going to get. A green could be lime, or jalapeno, and a red could be cherry, or Tabasco. I have a rule, though, that I can never spit one out. Takes the fun out of it."

Al grinned, and nodded. "You're so strange," he said.

She knew he meant it in a joking way, but Chloe did feel kind of strange and out of place at the moment. Even though the Potters had done all they could to make her feel welcome, she couldn't help but feel like somewhat of an outsider that Christmas morning. For the first time since she had arrived at the Potter residence, Chloe just wished she were back home.

A/N: Okay, sorry to end the chapter on somewhat of a sad-note. There will be more of Christmas day in the next chapter, but this one was getting kind of long, and I really wanted to get something posted, since it's been so long since I've posted anything. Anyway, please let me know what you think of the story so far. I'm somewhat discouraged by the low number of reviews that this story has gotten so far. Thanks in advance!


	7. Girl Talk

A/N: All right, this is quite a long chapter, so I hope you'll enjoy it. Also, I introduce all the Weasleys of the new generation in this chapter, and I realize that it might be enough to make one's head spin, as there's just so many of them. However, any time that one of them becomes important again, I'll do my best to make sure you know who I'm talking about in context. Also, I should mention that I don't stick to the guide on Rowling's website for who the kids are, and who the members of Ron and Ginny's generation married, at least not whole-sale. I did take some ideas from it, though, such as that Angelina is married to George and that they named their first son Fred.

Chapter 7

Girl Talk

"Where should I put the presents?" asked George, seconds after apparating into the Potters' living room.

"How about under the tree?" suggested Ginny, pointing to the large and rather obvious Christmas tree located about a dozen feet behind George. She answered George's question from the kitchen, where she was putting the finishing touches on the pumpkin roll which she was making for dessert.

"Right-o!" agreed George, deciding to ignore Ginny's obvious smart-aleck attitude on the grounds that it was Christmas, and that she was probably stressed out from having planned such a large family occasion.

"Where's Fred, then?" asked Al, who had just walked into the living room along with Chloe. Fred was almost Al's age, and would be starting Hogwarts the next year. Al had promised Chloe that he would introduce him to her as soon as possible, and was getting ready to make good on that promise.

"He's about to Floo over with his mother and the other kids as soon as he finds his shoes. I swear, the boy's smart, but he can't keep himself organized to save his life," said George.

"Hmm... It's a good thing you've already told me about Fred yourself," said Chloe. "Wouldn't it be odd if that was the first thing I'd ever heard about him?" she asked.

"Well... yeah, but, you _will _want to keep it in mind. For instance, never lend him anything you're going to be anxious to have back anytime soon. I mean, he won't steal it, but chances are he'll have no idea where it's ended up within five minutes of you handing it to him. It's like you with quills, except he's like that with everything," Al pointed out.

"Well... sounds like next year, not a quill in Hogwarts will be safe," said Chloe.

"Except the one that I gave you today," said Al.

"Right-o," she agreed.

Suddenly, from out of the fireplace stepped Tiffany, the youngest of George and Angelina's three children. She was six years old, and this was only her second time using the floo-network without being carried along by one of her parents. George, who had already laid down the presents by the tree, swooped in and picked her up as she overbalanced and nearly wound up on the floor.

"Hi, Tiffany," said Lily, who happened to walk down to the living-room at that point.

"Lily!" yelled Tiffany, as she squirmed to get free of George's grasp so she could properly greet Lily, who was, as everyone knew, Tiffany's favorite cousin.

"Al, run up and get James from his room," commanded Ginny, "he should be here now that guests are arriving." The curt tone of voice she used while issuing this direction was something that she had been using often the past couple days during the preparations for the Christmas party. The stress had proved a little higher than she had anticipated.

"Don't worry about it, Al," said Harry, who had trailed Lily into the room, "I'll get him... You should be here to greet Fred." Harry winked at Al in what Al interpreted as an attempt to show that he shouldn't be offended by his mother's tone.

Meanwhile, Molly Weasley apparated into the kitchen at the same moment as Abby, George and Angelina's 2nd oldest, who was about to turn 10, and who would be starting Hogwarts the same year as Lily and Hugo, stepped out of the fire-place.

"Lily!" she said, running over to hug her cousin, who had just managed to free herself from Tiffany's hug.

"So, er, this is Tiffany and Abby," said Al, gesturing to each in turn. Tiffany gave a shy wave, and Abby smiled at her after she had hugged Lily.

As Molly quickly set about helping her daughter with the remaining preparations for dinner, Angelina stepped from the fire-place.

"Where's Fred?" asked George, who knew that Angelina usually waited for all her children to floo away before going after them, the better to direct traffic.

"He _claims _he's found his shoes and will be here in a moment. I'm not saying that I doubt our son's honesty, but..."

Just then, the fire blazed in the way that it usually did when about to emit a floo-traveler, and everyone expected Fred to come through then, but instead it was Andy Weasley, who was Percy's oldest child.

"Is Penelope coming soon?" asked Ginny eagerly, as she glanced into the living room and saw Andy. Penelope was good in the kitchen, and the last time she looked at the clock, Ginny had realized that another witch in the kitchen would be necessary if they were going to get dinner on the table by 2:00 as promised.

"Yeah, she should be coming after Annie and Jessica," said Andy.

But the next one out of the fire-place was not Annie or Jessica, but was instead Rose.

"Hi Andy," she said. Rose was the cousin with whom Andy got along the best, although the other cousins present at least gave him a wave.

At that moment, Harry stepped in and gasped at the number of people who had arrived since the last time he had been in the room only a moment before. "Quite the party we've got going on in here, then, haven't we?" He busied himself conjuring extra chairs so that everyone would have a place to sit.

Meanwhile, Annie stepped out of the fireplace. Annie had just turned 9. She was followed almost immediately by her twin sister Jessica.

Penelope apparated into the kitchen and Percy appeared in the living room just as Fred stepped out of the fire-place wearing flip-flops instead of shoes.

"I thought you said you found your shoes!" said Angelina angrily.

"I said 'I found _shoes_.' They were Dad's," explained Fred.

"So you haven't found yours?" asked Angelina.

"'Course I have, Mum! I just thought flip-flops would make for good seasonal wear," explained Fred patiently.

"Don't give your mother cheek!" yelled George, but he wasn't able to keep his voice from breaking into a laugh.

"Sorry, mum!" said Fred, putting on the most innocent face he could muster.

But at this point, Angelina was glaring at her husband for laughing while reprimanding their child instead of at her son for giving her cheek.

"Oi, Angelina!" said George, with his most innocent look, which, not at all coincidentally, looked nearly identical to that of his son. "Please forgive your son, and your husband. It is Christmas, after all. We can summon his shoes for him when we get home. And the flip-flops _do _make for a rather amusing seasonal choice."

Angelina took a deep breath. Even at the age of 11, Al had already speculated that it was only owing to his aunt's spectacular ability to forget her anger quickly that she and his uncle George were still on speaking terms after all these years. This situation was no different, and Angelina soon had a smile on her face. "Ah well. 8 months and the boy's off to Hogwarts to confuse professors rather than his poor mother."

In the time that Angelina had been arguing with George and Fred, Ron, Hermione, and Hugo had made their way through the fire-place and taken seats quietly around the living room. No one, apparently, wanted to miss the show. Now that the argument was over, however, greetings were exchanged all around.

"So, that's Fred, then, if you hadn't picked up on it," said Al.

"Yes, I'd picked up on that," said Chloe, who had gotten up to shake his hand.

"Fred, meet Chloe," instructed Al.

"I like your flip-flops. Pink suits you," said Chloe.

"Yes, well, I saw one of those muggle t-shirts claiming that 'Real men wear pink.' And I figured that _real _men wear pink _flip-flops_," said Fred.

"Interesting point," said Chloe.

Arthur suddenly apparated into the living-room, directly between Chloe and Fred, who, having finished shaking hands, were only standing three feet away from each other.

"Hello, everybody!" greeted Arthur.

Not a moment later, Charlie also apparated into the living room, followed almost immediately by his wife Fran, who was holding their baby, Timmy. "Are we the last to arrive, then?" asked Charlie, after surveying the room quickly. Timmy was the single only child amongst the Weasley cousins. His parents had only gotten married three years before, and had decided that it was too late in life to have more than one kid.

"Nope, we still need Bill's lot. Teddy's coming along with them, as well," said Harry.

"'Course he is," said Charlie with a smile. "Is he still dating our little Victoire, then?"

"Yes, though I'm sure she'd be appalled to hear you call her 'little,'" pointed out Hermione.

"She's appalled with an awful lot, if you ask me," pointed out Fred.

"No talking badly about your cousins! It's Christmas!" warned Angelina.

"I _know _it is," pointed out Fred in a sly whisper to Al, beside whom he had just taken a seat. "That's why I haven't insulted Andy yet." Fred gestured over to Andy, who was sitting with his father, Percy.

"I'm not looking forward to him being in Hogwarts next year," whispered Al, making sure that no one but Fred heard.

"Nor am I. I bet we both get sorted into Gryffindor, too, and I'll have to share a room with him. Oh well... At least if we're in the same house, I know he'll get prefect over me, and that'd be a load off my shoulders. We both know my father wouldn't stand a prefect in the family," said Fred.

"I'm sure you'll think of plenty of ways to not get made prefect," Al comforted him.

Jacques, who was the younger of Fleur and Bill's two children, came through the fire-place.

"The rest will apparate over in just a moment," said Jacques, after getting his bearings.

"Hi, Jacques!" said James, as he sat down beside him. "Looking forward to having Gryffindor whip you in the next Quidditch match?"

"You know you won't," retorted Jacques with a confident smile. Jacques was a fourth year Ravenclaw, and played Keeper for the team. Victoire was in Ravenclaw as well, although she didn't play Quidditch.

Finally, in four separate pops, Fleur, Bill, Victoire, and Teddy apparated into the living room, completing the full contingent of Weasleys.

The living room was extremely crowded in spite of its great size, nearly half as big as a common-room at Hogwarts, and there was happy chatting among all the guests in the living room while Penelope, Molly, Ginny, and Fleur completed dinner preparations.

The sound of chattering only got louder as the many Weasleys were packed around two long tables in the dining room to eat dinner. Still, there was yet more noise when the party moved back into the living room and presents had been distributed and began to be opened. Every time someone opened a present, they would yell their thanks, often clear across the room, to the person who had put the present under the tree for them.

There were a total of hundreds of presents opened by the more than two dozen people at the party, but the one that had all the children the most excited was, unsurprisingly, the one from the joke shop.

Although he gave each of his nephews and nieces a bag full of goodies suited to their personal tastes, he made sure that each of the children, including Chloe, got a prototype of his new product. It looked like a normal piece of parchment, but, as all the Weasley children knew, it was clearly not that simple.

"So, here's what you want to do," said George, explaining the gift after everyone had opened theirs. "First, you write along the top the names of whoever you want to be able to see what you write on the paper. Obviously, you can only write to people who also have one of these, and I would advise using first and last names, because if some other bloke named Al buys one of these, any message that you send just to 'Al' will go to both of them. But, anyway, once you start writing to someone, you can see what they write, and you can see what they write. You can also divide the page into separate columns, by drawing lines down the page. Then only the people whose names are written in each column can see what you write to them. As you fill up the parchment, information on the top will disappear so that you can keep writing at the bottom. You can clear the paper and start over by tapping it with a wand. Basically, this parchment is the best way to pass notes in class, without actually passing notes. But, of course, it works over longer distances, too. If it sells well enough, it could eventually put a damper on the owl-industry."

Chloe thought for a second. "So... kind of like chatting in the muggle-world?"

"Yeah..." said George slowly. "Only you write it instead of talking."

Chloe looked confused. Then, after comprehension struck, she said, "Oh, no, I meant 'chatting' on the internet."

"What?" asked Al.

"Oh, never mind," said Chloe.

Arthur looked quite interested by the subject, however, and Al smiled as he knew that Chloe was likely to get cornered by his grandfather and forced to explain whatever the internet was to him before he would leave the house.

Another gift that each of the grandchildren got was one of Molly Weasleys' famous sweaters. It had finally gotten to the point only a few years before where she was too busy making sweaters for all the grandchildren that she was no longer able to make them for her own children, a fact for which they were all rather grateful.

"I didn't mean to leave you out, Chloe," said Molly, as all the other grandchildren (except baby Timmy) performed the yearly tradition of pulling Gran Weasley's sweater on over whatever they had worn that morning.

"That's all right," said Chloe, who was once again a bit overwhelmed by the pile of gifts in front of her, as many of the Weasleys seemed to have been warned she was coming. "And thanks again for the scarf."

"Don't mention it," said Molly. "Next year you'll get a proper sweater. I only had time to make the scarf on short notice, though. You see, I knit by hand. Find it's more personal that way. You will be here next year, of course? Ginny said she's making this into a yearly family tradition."

Chloe wanted to protest that she wasn't family, as grateful as she was that everyone here seemed to be so keen on treating her as if she was. However, she just gave a meek smile instead, as Fred answered for her. "Don't worry Gran, we'll make sure she's here."

That made Chloe laugh in spite of how awkward she was once again starting to feel. She had known Fred for less than three hours and he was already making promises on her behalf. Al had not been joking when he said Fred was an interesting kid.

Rose plopped down beside Chloe, causing Chloe to have to scoot closer to Al on the already crowded couch. "Hey, thanks so much for the drawing. You mentioned you drew, but you never said you were that _good _at it!"

"Well, I don't like to brag," said Chloe jokingly. "But, seriously, you like it?"

"Of course!" said Rose, with obvious sincerity.

"I'm glad," said Chloe, who was somewhat surprised to find that she believed Rose more than she believed Al when he said he liked his. She supposed she thought of Al as more likely to lie to spare her feelings than Rose was. Not to say that Rose was inconsiderate of her feelings. But Chloe had been getting the feeling lately that Al might have a crush on her. Unless it was just wishful thinking. Chloe shook her head to clear it of these distracting thoughts and instead focus on the conversation at hand with Rose.

"Thanks for the color-changing ink, by the way," Chloe added. "It will be interesting to use it with my drawings."

"Oooh, yeah, it will be. You'll have to show me how it turns out. No more hiding your drawings anymore!"

"All right, then," said Chloe, with a smile.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the room, Jacques raised his voice and said, "James and I seem to have a bit of a dispute regarding our Chasing skills. Might anyone be in the mood to help us settle the score by starting a game?"

Harry was the first to respond, "What an excellent idea, you two!"

"Right," said Bill, who was clearly also excited to play.

"Victoire and Teddy, are you going to play? I can grab your brooms when I apparate over," offered Bill.

"I'll play," said Teddy.

"I'll watch," said Victoire.

Three minutes and several apparition-pops later, everyone had their brooms and was ready to go outside. Gryffindor's Hollow was home to several wizarding families, as well as a number of Muggles. The wizards had gotten together years ago and set up some charms over a field to make it so that no muggles would be able to notice if the wizards used their brooms over the field. Harry, Ron, Charlie, Bill, George, Fred, Angelina, James, Al, Jacques, and Teddy were each getting ready to play.

Harry did a quick count. "There's only 11 of us. We need one more for even teams, then we can just have each team be down a beater and just play with one bludger. Why aren't you playing, Ginny?"

Ginny gave a short laugh. "You may not have noticed, but we just had a boat-load of people eat here. I need to clean up!"

"We could clean up later, and I'd help," offered Harry.

Ginny gave a glance toward her mother and then back at Harry. "It'd be more responsible to clean up now."

"Er... All right, do you want me to stay in and help?" he asked hesitantly. It was quite clear that he hoped his wife would let him go out and play quidditch.

"No, no, go play," said Ginny kindly. "Shouldn't be too hard to clean with magic."

"Thanks, honey," said Harry, giving her a quick kiss.

"Can I play?" asked Lily. "I'd just need to borrow a broom!"

Harry almost nodded before Ginny said, "Not now, sweetie, it's too cold outside."

"I've got a cloak, I'll be fine!" said Lily. "Why do Al and James get to play?"

"They're older than you," said Ginny.

"But--" said Lily.

"Maybe we'll get a game or two together this summer and you can play, all right Lils?" asked Harry.

Lily knew that if both of her parents were in agreement on this, then there was no way she was going to get her way.

She looked about ready to start pouting, but then Rose said, "Hey, Lily, I brought my first written Charms test to show you. Thought you might get a kick of seeing how many of the answers you could get right already."

Al rolled his eyes at the fact that Rose had brought a test to a Christmas party, but he knew he couldn't really be too surprised, considering who her mother was. Lily, in turn, looked up to Rose. And since Rose had memorized half of the _Standard Book of Spells Year One _when she was nine, Lily had rather big shoes to fill if she wanted to emulate her cousin. Frankly, Al hoped that trying to emulate Rose was a phase that Lily would grow out of. As much as he loved Rose, it got a bit annoying always knowing his grades were going to be lower than hers, and he wasn't sure he could deal with his sister showing him up as well.

Finally Victoire decided to play instead of just watch, and the twelve started to make their way outside. Chloe, who didn't have a broom and didn't feel comfortable enough on a broom to want to borrow someone else's, started to follow those going outside. Then, after Rose and Lily had gone upstairs, Chloe quickly told Al, "You know what, actually I'm going to go with Lily and Rose instead, ok?"

Al's face fell a bit, as if he'd been looking forward to Chloe seeing him play, but then he said, "Yeah, all right, have fun."

"Yeah, you have fun playing Quidditch!" agreed Chloe.

But when Chloe went upstairs, after making her way through the living room with the younger children and the less Quidditch-oriented of the older guests, it was not to find Lily and Rose, but instead to seek somewhere that she could just be by herself for a few minutes.

It wasn't that she was ungrateful for the fact that the Weasleys and Potters had taken them into their family with an almost absurd speed. It was just that since the beginning of vacation, she'd been almost constantly around people. During the day, she'd been around Al, and often Rose, since Rose had visited Al's house both of the past two days. Sure, at night she was alone in Al's room, since Al was staying with James, but sleeping in someone else's bed always made her uncomfortable. She felt like she was in their personal space or something.

Usually, of course, Chloe was a rather sociable person, so being around people wasn't usually a problem. But at the moment, she really felt like she needed to be alone with her thoughts.

Once she got up to the second floor, she passed by Lily's room and went into Al's room.

She shut the door quietly behind her and sat down on the bed. She hadn't intended to sleep, but once she sat down on the soft bed, she suddenly realized how sleepy she was. Apparently, the trouble she had been having falling asleep in Al's bed, combined with being dragged out of bed early by Lily this morning, had taken its toll. She decided that she could be alone with her thoughts just as easily laying down as sitting up, so she laid down. Within three minutes, she was asleep.

She woke with a start when Ginny opened the door half an hour later.

"Oh, sorry!" Chloe yelled embarrassedly.

"Oh, no need to be sorry, Chloe," said Ginny nicely. "I'm the one who should be sorry. Should have thought to knock, but I thought you were down at the Quidditch pitch. Anyway, I was just putting Al's presents away for him."

"That's nice of you," said Chloe.

"Thanks," said Ginny, with a friendly smile as she sat down on the bed next to Chloe. "You know, me and you haven't gotten much of a chance to talk yet. I mean, I know you understand, with the preparations and everything. And we should have plenty of time to talk before you go back to school. That is, if you think Al won't mind me being a part of your guys' conversation once in awhile. I don't know, I just feel like I haven't been friendly enough to you."

Chloe noted immediately that Ginny was an oddly open person for an adult. Chloe respected that immensely, but that didn't stop her from being genuinely shocked at Ginny's statement. "Of _course _you've been friendly enough. Almost _too _friendly!" She paused. "That didn't come out right."

"It's ok. I'd rather be too friendly than not friendly enough, any day," Ginny said. "But if you want to explain more about what you mean, I'd be happy to listen."

"Well. It's not that you're being too friendly, I guess, it's just..." Chloe took a deep breath, torn about whether or not she should go on. She decided she might as well. Ginny had already seen her napping during a Christmas party, so if she was going to think she was weird, she'd probably started already. Plus, she seemed to be just nice enough of a person that she might genuinely be able to make Chloe feel a bit better if she confided in her. It would be a lot easier than confiding in Al or Rose, since she wouldn't have to see this woman every day, at least not once Christmas break was over. Chloe decided to continue, saying "It's just that... Well, I don't feel like I deserve it."

"What do you mean?" asked Ginny. Her tone was still kind, not suggesting that what Chloe was saying was absurd, just wanting to understand better.

"Well, you're all treating me so nice and everything. And I didn't know anyone here except Al, Rose, and James until three days ago, and you got me presents, and I didn't even have any money to get Al, Rose, or James presents, so I had to draw them drawings. And now I'm rambling! That one sentence was _entirely _too long," said Chloe.

Ginny's smile widened into a grin. "It's good that you're able to joke even when you're upset. Makes it just a little bit easier, doesn't it?"

"I guess so," admitted Chloe.

"Well, it sounds like you've got at least a couple issues going on here, but let me first try to explain why we're being so nice to you. There's something that you should know about us Weasleys. And, just to clarify, when I say 'Weasleys', here, I'm including Al, James, and Lily into the mix, because even though their last name is technically 'Potter,' they fit in splendidly with the rest of the family . Anyway, for generations, Weasleys have been famous for three things that made our family stand out from a lot of other Wizarding families. We all had red hair, as many kids as we could afford to raise, and bigger hearts than anyone else around. Now, you probably noticed from a quick glance around the living room during the party that the red hair thing is starting to become less of a distinctive feature. Just at an estimate, without counting in my head, I'd say we're down to just a little over half in my kids' generation. And unless you think we're poor, you've probably also gathered that we're not reproducing under the same rules that we used to be, either. I'm not too sure what the thought process was for my brothers and their wives, but I know what mine and Harry's was. See, one night we were joking about how everyone said that us Weasleys always had more kids than we can afford (that was the meaner version of the stereotype, saying that there were _more _kidsthan we could afford, instead of just as many), and we did the math. See, Harry got a pretty sizable inheritance from his parents, and, well... I'm not sure if Al would want me blabbing to you about how rich his father is, but we figured out that in order for us to overstep our financial means purely by raising kids, we'd have to have a number of kids that was well beyond practical to squeeze into my childbearing years. So we decided to just have the three. Anyway, my point is that now that our family has finally come into its own a bit financially, we seem to have stopped breeding with the same kind of uncontrollable enthusiasm as before. So the only Weasley family tradition that hasn't changed is that we've got some of the biggest hearts around. And I kind of hope that that tradition grows stronger, especially if the other two traditions are doomed to die out." Ginny paused. "You probably think I'm strange now, don't you? Just don't hold it against Al, okay?"

Chloe laughed. "Oh, trust me, Al's plenty weird himself. And you're not coming off as that weird. Just open. And I like that."

"I'm glad," said Ginny with a smile. "Now as for the money thing, I hope that from what I said just now, you've picked up that the Weasley family is the last group of people you should be embarrassed among for not having that much money. My brothers and I all grew up with... Well, we didn't really lack anything that we needed, but I always had to wear my robes for more years than my classmates had to, and my brothers were always getting hand-me-downs. 'Course, I got more than my share of hand-me-down books and school-supplies. And my first pet was a Pygmy-Puff. If you don't know what those are, they're just little ball of furs. Cost a lot less to buy and keep healthy than a cat or an owl, that's the relevant point. Anyway, I'm not complaining, I'm just trying to say that I know what it's like to not have a lot of money. And Harry didn't quite grow up in the lap of luxury either, even though he had to watch his cousin do just that. I think both Harry and I have done our best to make sure the kids don't grow up into spoiled little rich-kids, and I think we've done a good job so far. So I'm sure that Al and James are grateful for their gifts from you, and I know Lily was thrilled with hers. And if I know Ron and Hermione's parenting style as well as I think I do, Rose is just as thrilled with hers as well. Giving them something you had to do yourself was a lot more thoughtful than dropping a couple sickles on a box of candies anyway. Not that I'm insulting the merits of candy as a gift, of course."

Chloe nodded. "Thanks," she said. "This conversation has actually helped a lot more than I thought it would. Is it okay if I tell you one more thing, though?"

Ginny nodded emphatically. "Shoot."

"All right. Well. My family's not really poor, or anything. And, when I say 'my family', I just mean me and my Dad. See..." she trailed off again, then started up cautiously. "Hey, don't tell Al or James or anyone any of this, all right? Just, I haven't really told any of them yet, and I'd rather them hear it from me, first, if they've got to hear it."

"I understand," said Ginny.

"All right, well, my Mum left us just after I was born. My Dad's raised me by himself. Which isn't a problem by itself, 'cause he's always been about the most loving guy you could ever meet," Chloe paused and smiled. "Seems like my family and yours share that trait, eh? Anyway, we've always gotten along real well and everything, until I got my letter from Hogwarts explaining that I was a witch. He didn't take it really well. I mean, it wasn't like he burst into hysterics or anything, trying to burn me at the stake or something like they did to people they called witches in medieval times. More like he just quietly realized that he didn't know me nearly as well as he thought. Like he'd had this stranger living with him under his roof for 11 years whose identity had just become clear, and he didn't like it. Like he couldn't relate to me anymore." By this point, Chloe's voice had cracked and she'd started crying. She was a little bit embarrassed but knew there was no way to stop now, and she wasn't even sure she wanted to stop. She realized now that she'd needed to cry for awhile. Days, maybe. And now it was coming out, and in an odd way it felt almost nice to get it out. Ginny had put her arms around her.

"I'm really sorry, sweetie," she said consolingly. "I really can't imagine how tough that would be." Ginny seemingly had nothing else to say just yet, but waited in silence for Chloe to continue.

Finally, Chloe, who had been unable to talk through her crying, managed to get the crying down to just tears instead of the sobbing it had reached at its worst point. She continued. "Anyway, it was really awkward between us for the whole summer after I got the letter, and I was really hoping that at Christmas, once he'd had some time alone to adjust to the whole idea, he'd kind of come around and accept me for who I was. But, the last time I sent him an owl, in November, he sent it back-- I told him with the first owl I sent him that he could send a letter back with it if he just tied the parchment to his leg, so he's been using owl-post, just for return-letters to me-- with a response that mentioned he was going to Sweden or somewhere for Christmas, I forget exactly where. But he asked me to see if I could stay at school for Christmas."

Chloe looked at Ginny, tears coming out of her eyes. "So you think he just doesn't want you around anymore?" asked Ginny sympathetically.

Chloe nodded helplessly. She hated having her guard down so much with someone she didn't even know. She hated having her guard down this much with people she _did _know, which is why she hadn't told all this to Al or Rose. Whenever the subject of families came up, Chloe had just kind of skated over the issue and allowed Rose and Al, and sometimes Brittany, to monopolize the conversation. Their families were much more interesting than hers anyway.

"Well, there's other things that it could be," said Ginny. "I mean, I don't want to be putting any ideas into your head, but maybe he's met another woman and is spending Christmas break with her, but didn't feel comfortable telling you?"

Chloe thought the idea sounded a bit far-fetched, but still thought it was funny that Ginny was willing to discuss the possibility so openly with her. "I don't think so," said Chloe. "Because that wouldn't explain the awkwardness over the summer. Oh, wait. I forgot to mention. Over the summer, after the letter came, that's how all this tied into the presents. See, he stopped giving me allowance when the letter came. Frankly, that had seemed like one of the less distressing parts of my situation at the time, so I didn't care so much about it, but... Well, just, it became a bit of a problem when I was trying to think of what presents to buy people." Chloe smiled weakly, remembering what Ginny had said recently about being able to joke even when you were down.

"Well, like I said, it's really hard for me to relate to what it'd be like to be a muggle-born finding out you were a witch. And I really don't know what it'd be like for a parent. I mean... Every wizarding parent has the worry in the back of their mind that maybe their kid will be a squib, but it's not the same, because at least when it does happen, it's something the parents knew _might _happen. It'd be more like if there were no muggles at all in the world, just wizards, and all of a sudden some parent found out that his kid was the only one around who _couldn't do magic. It really would be tough," said Ginny._

_"Yeah, I know," said Chloe, starting to calm down a bit, although slowly. "It's not exactly that I blame him for it. And I've still got hope that he'll sort himself out in the end. I mean, I was hoping for Christmas break, but he only found out in July, and half a year is kind of a short time to adjust to something so life-changing. It must be hard for him not having me around the house, though. I think he depended on me in some ways. Geez. I wish I wasn't old enough to realize that about him. It was easier when I didn't know he needed to depend on anybody. Growing up's tough."_

_"Try doing it with six older brothers," said Ginny with a smile._

_Chloe laughed, wiping away the last of the tears. "Well, I think on that score you just might have me beat." She paused again. "I really appreciate you talking to me about this. I really think it helped a little bit. I mean, it's still hard, what I'm going through with my Dad and all, but, it was definitely better to talk about it."_

_"And to cry a little bit, right?" asked Ginny knowingly._

_"Yeah, that helped, too. Although now I'm even more tired than I was before," she said._

_"That can happen, sometimes. Why don't you take another quick nap? I'd be surprised if the Quidditch-heroes come back in anything less than another hour, and when they do, I'll make some hot chocolate. Should I wake you up for that?"_

_"That sounds wonderful," said Chloe gratefully. She gave Ginny a hug, although the hug was about a lot more than the hot chocolate. _

_"I'm glad we had this little chat. And, I'll keep my promise and won't say a word about it to anyone, but... I really think you might want to tell one of your friends about it. Not that we can't be friends, but you know what I mean. A friend your own age. I think you should tell Al and Rose, since you seem to be such close friends with both of them, but I can see why you might not want to tell something like this to a boy. Men, especially Potter men, aren't great with talking about emotions."_

_"I'll keep that in mind. But I do think I'll tell both of them. Eventually," said Chloe. _

_Ginny smiled. "Well, I hope you will. Anyway, I'll just turn this light out for you and be on my way."_

_"Thanks Mrs. Potter," she said. _

_"Oh, call me Ginny. I think that anyone who you're comfortable enough with to cry in front of is someone you can call by their first name," she said._

_Chloe smiled again. "Thanks, Ginny." _

_A/N: All right, so, I really hope you enjoyed that chapter, and if you did, I'd definitely like to hear why. Even if you didn't like it, I'd like to hear what was bad, too, and constructive criticism's appreciated even if you liked the chapter. Long story short: Review! Thanks for reading!_


	8. Andrew Himmel

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's read to this point, and special thanks to "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillanimus" and "Hey I'm really Sirius" for reviewing recently.

Chapter 8

Andrew Himmel

The rest of Christmas break passed fairly uneventfully, and all too soon Chloe, Rose, Al, and Brittany were sharing a compartment in the Hogwarts Express as it made its way back toward the school. It was the unanimous consensus among Al, Chloe, and Rose that the best part of school starting up again was the fact that they now got to see Brittany again. For Brittany, in turn, the best part was seeing them.

The second best part of the new term beginning was the fact that the DA meetings were about to start up again.

Each Al, Chloe, Rose, and Brittany loved learning the new spells, and it was nice for Rose to be able to hang out with her friends somewhere other than the library or the now quite chilly grounds. Al especially appreciated the meetings since it was one of the few times when he saw his brother for any real extended period of time at Hogwarts. It wasn't like James avoided him or anything, but he wasn't one to spend much time in the library, and it turned out that people who didn't share a common room could often go days without having any communication aside from a passing nod.

The first Defense Club meeting of the year took place on the Saturday one week after the new term started. Since the club had met all of last term and therefore earned the trust of McGonagall and the other professors, they were now able to meet in an empty classroom without a professor present, instead of always meeting in the Great Hall like they had before. The room was usually used for Charms classes, so it was big enough for their purposes, which usually included dueling practice. They had cleared the floor and brought a few large dueling mats from a supply closet, and soon the 20 or so people who had become the regular members of the club had gathered in the room as well.

James began, "So, today we're going to learn a really interesting spell that I'm confident none of you have heard of before. It's a really obscure spell, which will make it useful if you're ever in a situation where you're actually dueling somebody. You see, some adult wizards are able to do something called 'Legilimancy', which allows them to predict what spell you would cast before you cast it. If you're about to use a spell that they've never heard of, though, it'll be much harder for them to prepare for it and try to come up with a counter-curse. Besides, this spell is kind of cool either way. See, it prevents your opponent from using any spells that would cause a person pain. So, if your opponent tried to use Cruciatus on you, nothing at all would happen. Mind you, it doesn't block the Killing Curse, because, as we all know, that's not something that can be countered by any kind of spell-work. Also, it won't stop you from being stunned or petrified because, although these curses are quite annoying to get hit with, they don't actually cause physical pain on their own. But any spell that does cause pain will be unable to be performed by the wand of the person that you cast the spell on. Everyone following this, so far?" James asked.

There were a few nods around the room, and a few people seemed particularly interested. It certainly wasn't a spell that Al had ever heard before, and Rose looked especially enthralled, which made sense since she was usually interested in learning new spells.

"The spell lasts for either 24 hours or until the caster lifts it, whichever comes first. But, for the first 24 hours, it's one of the few spells that can only be reversed by the original caster. The incantation is 'Facio Innocens.' So, we're going to practice this spell now. I want you to break into pairs, and each of you will duel, but you can only use expelliarmus, Facio innocens, and the spell "Contusio", which will give the victim a small bruise where you point your wand, and can be reversed with a simple 'finite incantatem.' It's not much use in battle, but it does hurt a little bit, and therefore should be perfect for this exercise, since it won't go through if the other person has successfully cast Facio innocens. Remember, though, don't be too discouraged if you don't get these two new spells on your first try... You're probably all still a bit rusty after Christmas break, and Facio Innocens is a bit tricky anyway. For most other spells, you can help focus your energy by thinking of something concrete, like your opponent's wand jumping across the room, but for this one, you just sort of have to focus on wanting your opponent not to be able to cause pain, which is much more abstract idea. Anyway... Enough of me lecturing, why don't you lot have at it, then? First one to hit their partner with Contusio wins, if you both hit each other with Facio Innocens, no one can win, so call it a draw."

Rose and Brittany paired up, as did Chloe and Al. They had found that these original match-ups that they had picked the first day of the DA actually worked out quite well. Rose and Brittany were usually a bit quicker than Chloe and Al at actually learning the spells, but Chloe and Al were a slightly better at dueling, as they were much more willing to dive and jump out of the ways of spells that would otherwise have hit them. It was helpful for them to practice against someone who had a similar style, although every couple meetings, they switched it up, just to get a taste of variety.

"So, ready to give this a go?" Al asked Chloe as they faced each other.

"Yeah. But, before we do... do you mind if we try _not_ to aim for each other's faces for the Contuiso spell? I know your brother said it just gives a bruise, but i don't much fancy having any kind of a bruise at all inside my eye or something, even if it can be reversed with Finite Incantatem."

"Agreed," said Al quickly. He considered himself too chivalrous to aim for a girl's face in a practice duel, anyway. He supposed it'd be different if it were a real duel, but in a practice duel, especially one with Chloe, she really wouldn't have had to make the rule at all.

"Ok. Count of three to start, then?" asked Chloe. They started to count in unison, "One, two, three..."

"Expelliarmus!" said Al, knowing this was a spell he would get right on his first try, and hoping that it would give him a second to concentrate on one of the newer spells.

"Contusio!" yelled Chloe.

As they sent their spells, they each jumped out of the way to try to dodge each other's spells.

Al's Expelliarmus missed Chloe completely, while the beam of light from Chloe's wand hit Al in the ankle. He didn't feel a thing.

Chloe grinned, assuming that he had won, but Al aimed his wand at her and said, "Contusio!" He saw the weak beam of light from his own wand hit Chloe in the hand, but nothing happened.

Al rolled his eyes in frustration at his shoddy spell-work, which gave Chloe the chance to yell "Contusio!" again, this time hitting him below the knee. Al swore as he felt a dull pain, which he figured meant he was hit. He lifted up his robe, rolled up his pant leg a bit, and confirmed his suspicion, showing Chloe. "You won that round I guess. How'd you manage to pull off that spell on your second try?"

"Well... I was frustrated after not getting it the first time. Guess that made it easier to want to hurt you," said Chloe with a slight smile. "But only slightly! I'm sure I couldn't have pulled off Cruciatus... Probably couldn't have done any more than I just did, really. Didn't hurt bad, though, did it?"

"Hardly at all," confirmed Al, as he performed Finite Incantatem to make the spell disappear.

"Good. Well... should I do something to make you angry at me, so that you can cast the spell easier?" asked Chloe.

"Nah... I don't think I could ever get angry at you." He realized immediately after he said it how overly sentimental that sounded, and regretted it right away. He changed the subject as quickly as possible. "I'll just pretend your Scorpius or something. That kid gets on my _nerves_."

"Fair enough," said Chloe, opting to ignore Al's previous statement.

"Count to three?" asked Al.

"One, two, three..."

"Facio Innocens!" yelled Chloe.

Al led with "Expelliarmus!" again, this time keeping his feet planted to better his aim, and he aimed slightly to Chloe's left, since he knew from dueling her so often that this was the direction that she almost always jumped. The spell hit her as she jumped right into it, but he was hit by hers as well.

Chloe's wand flew a few feet behind her, and as she bent down to pick it up, Al sent "Contusio" her way, figuring that her first attempt at Facio Innocens probably hadn't really worked. It hit her, and Chloe swore, using a slightly worse word than he had when he lost his match. Al reflected that one of the biggest differences between the DA and an actual class was that, since Flitwick had stopped coming to supervise, no one said anything if they swore. Although Rose did tend to look severely disappointed if she heard Al or Chloe swear. Luckily, though, it was usually loud enough during the meetings, with almost two dozen people dueling, that people could usually only hear their own partners.

"So aren't you even going to _try _using 'Facio Innocens'?" asked a slightly annoyed-sounding Chloe. She really had a bit of a competitive streak, noted Al, although he figured that a strong competitive nature was a common attribute of Slytherin students. It was, in fact, one of the few characteristics that Chloe and Al actually shared with their housemates.

"Not if I can win so easily without it," said Al.

"A bit cocky, are we? Remember that we're one and one, will you?" asked Chloe.

"All right... Let's see who's leading after this one..."

"One... two... three..."

"Facio Innocens!" yelled Al, as Chloe fired an Expelliarmus. This time they each dodged each other's spell.

"Facio Innocens!" yelled Al again, as Chloe was still catching her balance.

"Contusio!" yelled Chloe, a fraction of a second after Al's spell hit her.

The streak of blue light hit Al in the chest, but he didn't feel anything.

"Oooh!" said Al, "did I get it, or did you not cast it right? Cast it again, will you, I want to see whether my spell worked. Do you want me to gloat a bit, so you get mad?"

"I'm already a bit irritable about the prospect that I might have lost, thanks," Chloe pointed out. "Contusio!" she said, hitting Al, who made no attempt to dodge, on his right hand. The spell made no mark.

"Yes!" said Al.

"You've still got to hit me, though, before you win," said Chloe, who added "Expelliarmus!" before Al had a chance to remember that she was right. The wand shot up in the air, and Chloe ran over to Al. Al was confused enough by trying to figure out what exactly she was up to that he had no time to dodge her when she physically pushed him out of the way and grabbed his wand before it hit the floor.

Chloe grinned and said, "Now you can't hit me either. It's a draw."

Al was almost irritated, but Chloe was grinning so wide that he couldn't even get properly irked about losing, but instead grinned with her. "That was clever, I admit," said Al. Chloe gave his wand back to him so that he could cast Finite Incantatem on her so that his spell would end and they could start over.

"Thanks. This one will be the tie-breaker, then?" asked Chloe.

"Right-o," agreed Al, and they counted to three again before starting.

About forty-five minutes later, each Chloe and Al had won a total of 10 duels, while Rose had beaten Brittany 12 to 10.

"All right, everyone," said James, after having called the club to order once again. "That was a great session. I stopped dueling a couple times to watch you, and I think everyone got had Facio Innocens pretty much down by halfway through. Now if any Slytherin punk-- no offense to our own Slytherins, of course," he said with a wink toward the corner of the room where Al, Chloe, and Brittany stood with Rose, "-- then you'll have a spell they haven't heard of up your sleeve. Too bad it wears off after 24 hours, though. All right, well... See you all next week, then." Al, Chloe, Rose, and Brittany walked over to James, Marty, and John as everyone else made their way to the door.

"Interesting new spell," commented Rose to James.

"Thanks, I thought so, too. Know who taught it to me?" James asked her.

"No, although I was wondering," she admitted.

"Your mother," said James. "Over Christmas break. I asked her if she knew any cool defensive spells I could teach the club. She seemed really excited that we'd started up the DA again... Almost as excited as my Dad was when I told him."

"Oh, yeah... I told her about it in my letters, of course, but I guess she was still excited to be able to help out with the spell-work," said Rose.

"Makes sense," said Al, nodding. Being excited to help her nephew learned sounded like typical Aunt Hermione. "I wonder where she learned the spell, though, I've never heard Dad mention it in any of his famous stories, so I don't think it's anything they used against Voldemort."

"She has kind of a hobby of looking up obscure spells. She's started passing some onto me as well... Guess she just thought I might as well learn this one from you. Which is well and good, in my opinion... You guys might not know it, but living with my Mom can be a bit tiresome sometimes... I mean, I like learning new spells as much as the next witch, but... I can't _always _be as excited about it as she is."

"I guess Uncle Ron passed along more genes to you than just the one for red hair after all, then," said James with a slight grin. Then, he glanced at his watch and looked at the others. "Hey, John and I have Quidditch practice in 10 minutes... You lot mind cleaning up alone tonight?"

"No problem," said Chloe, and the others nodded their agreement.

"You can go, too, if you want, we can handle it," said Rose, as Marty appeared to be hanging back as John and James left.

"You sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, no problem," confirmed Al.

"Well, I do have some Ancient Runes homework to do..." he said.

"Sounds tough," Brittany pointed out. "Good luck on that."

"Thanks," said Marty, with a smile, as he left the room.

"So, Al, do you find it as weird as I do that James asked my mother to teach him a new spell, or do I just not know him well enough to know how scholarly he actually is?" asked Rose, as they were getting the room back in order. They weren't using magic because they didn't know quite enough of that sort of magic yet for it to make the process any easier.

"No, I'm shocked as you are," said Al, shaking his head.

"Makes sense, though, doesn't it?" asked Chloe.

"Er... no, it doesn't," said Al. "That's what we were saying.

"Well, you said he's always been a bit of a prankster, too right? And he really likes being in the spotlight, right? He absolutely _thrives _on being cheered for at Quidditch games."

"Well, yes, that's true," agreed Al.

Rose caught on to where Chloe was going before Al did. "So, you're saying that he enjoys the DA because it gives him another chance to be in the spotlight."

"I'm not saying he's conceited or anything," said Chloe sincerely, seeming to think she had accidentally crossed a line.

"Oh, I don't think anyone was trying to hide that he's conceited," said Al with a grin. "But why would him liking the spotlight make him want to learn new spells?"

"Well, the better he is at leading this group, the more attention he gets," said Rose.

Chloe nodded in agreement.

"It's weird how different you and your brother are," Brittany pointed out. "I don't think I've ever noticed you trying to be the center of attention."

Al thought about this for a second. "Yeah, well... I don't think I can play that role any better than James can anyway. I suppose I'll have to be the quietly dignified one of the family."

"Well, it certainly won't be Lily!" said Rose with a grin.

"Oh, you're right about that," agreed Chloe with a similar grin. "I know that from spending two weeks with her!"

"I need to meet her," said Brittany. "She sounds fun."

"Oh, she is," agreed Al. "I'd bet you five galleons that she gets sorted into Gryffindor, though, so we won't get to see her as much as Rose will."

"Yeah... I think she'll be Gryffindor, too," agreed Rose. "'Course, I thought you would be, too, but..."

"You're not still bitter about that, are you?" asked Al, with a slightly apologetic smile.

"Only sometimes," said Rose.

By this time in the conversation, they had gotten the room in order. "You guys don't have your books with you, do you?" asked Rose.

"No, I think you're the only one who actually carries your books with you everywhere you go," teased Al. "You know, it'd save time if--" said Rose.

"Yeah, and wreak havoc on our posture, too," pointed out Chloe.

Rose groaned. "Fine, meet you in the library in 20 minutes? I've got to do that Potions essay."

"Yeah, me too," agreed Al.

"We'll be there," said Brittany.

Later that week, on Tuesday night, Al stayed awake in the common room a little later than Brittany and Chloe, putting the finishing touches on that same Potions essay, which was due the next day. He had just remembered something that he had completely forgotten to mention in the essay and was considering adding another paragraph to the essay to include it. He knew that Rose hadn't put it in hers, since she let him read her essay when she had finished it two days ago, and he decided that staying up an extra 10 minutes would be worth the prospect of finally getting a higher mark than her on something, even though he was the only one left in the Slytherin common room.

He had just bent his head over his parchment when he heard someone say, "Oy, Pothole!" He knew immediately that it was Malfoy, from the voice, the drawl, and the fact that the boy seemed to have made it his personal assignment to come up with as many stupid and vaguely insulting nicknames for Al as possible.

"What is it, Malfoy?" asked Al, deciding that he didn't have enough energy left to come up with a stupid nickname in return.

"I hear your girlfriend's been mouthing off to my girlfriend," said Scorpius.

Al wasn't sure whether he was more surprised to find out that Scorpius had a girlfriend, or that he himself apparently did.

"I don't have a girlfriend," said Al.

"Sure you do, that Mudblood Chloe," said Malfoy.

At this point, Al reached for his wand, which was on the table in front of him. If Malfoy was willing to start throwing words like 'Mudblood' around in front of Al, he was clearly looking for a fight, although Al had no idea why he would pick 11 o' clock on a Tuesday night to do it.

Scorpius raised his own hands, showing he didn't have a wand. "Can't we talk without trading hexes, like civilized gentlemen?" asked Malfoy with a tone of obviously false innocence.

"If you stop insulting my friends and get to whatever your point was, then sure," said Al, without letting go of his wand.

Scorpius rolled his eyes, although Al honestly couldn't figure out why. It wasn't like _he _had started this conversation. Scorpius said, "Anyway, Chloe's been harassing Megan, my girlfriend."

"Harassing?" asked Al, with unhidden skepticism. "I wasn't under the impression that Chloe even bothered _talking _to Megan."

"Are you calling Megan a liar?" asked Scorpius confrontationally.

"No, I'm calling you a liar. And a prat," added Al for good measure, getting up out of his chair, still clutching his wand. If Scorpius wanted a duel after all, Al was pretty sure that he could win. He was certain that Scorpius hadn't had as much practice as he had from being in the DA, and there was plenty of room in the common room to dodge and duck spells. He was almost sure that Scorpius wouldn't even be able to hit him. He was starting to get his energy back, too, and he figured adrenaline must have something to do with it. This might even be fun.

"You're not worth my time," said Scorpius, turning on his heel and walking away, toward the first year guys' room.

"A prat and a pansy, too, then?" asked Al from behind him, a bit disappointed that there wouldn't actually be a duel. But Scorpius was apparently unable to be baited, and simply gave Al the middle finger over his shoulder as he continued walking.

Al rolled his eyes and settled back down to continue working on his essay, setting his wand down on the table again.

Ten minutes later, just as he was adding on a quick conclusion paragraph, Al heard a slight creak that he thought came from somewhere in the common room. But he disregarded it. Slight, unexplained, noises happened all the time at Hogwarts. The only thought he spared to the noise as he continued toward the final sentence of the essay was that he hoped it wasn't the Bloody Baron coming down to the dungeons... The Bloody Baron was the only ghost at Hogwarts that mildly creeped Al out, and was in fact the second worst thing about being in Slytherin, aside from the fact that Malfoy was also there.

The next noise that Al heard was louder than a creak, as he heard a voice yell "Petrificus Totalus!" Al was frozen stiff as a board, lying half propped up on the chair that he had previously been sitting in, before he even had a chance to properly register that the voice belonged to Malfoy. He couldn't even see Malfoy through his eyes that had been frozen in a stare at the ceiling, but he heard Malfoy's voice again soon enough as he said, in a casual manner, "Furnunculus," and Al felt himself starting to develop painful boils.

Al was stunned that Malfoy had turned out to be much more despicable than he had ever imagined, and was wondering what else Malfoy might do to him as Al heard another noise.

He barely had time to register the hope that it wasn't another one of his roommates, none of whom seemed to like him overly much, come to curse him too, before he heard the voice of Andrew Himmel, the fifth year prefect who had introduced himself to Chloe and Al back at the welcome-feast.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?" asked Andrew angrily, surveying the scene quickly, as he aimed a 'Finite Incantatem' at Al, which released him from the boils and the paralysis simultaneously.

As soon as he could move his eyes again, he noticed that Andrew's eyes were shifting back and forth between Al's wand sitting peacefully on the table, and Scorpius.

"You little bastard!" said Andrew, looking at Malfoy in shock. "You attacked your own housemate, while he was unarmed, in your own _common-room_?"

Scorpius seemed to know that it was useless to argue this point. If he tried to claim that he had disarmed Al, there was no way he could explain how the wand had just happened to land so neatly on the table, set right beside his potions book. "He provoked me! He was badmouthing my girlfriend!"

Al was now getting the feeling that Scorpius just wanted to mention as many times as possible that he _had _a girlfriend, but he still felt the need to defend himself, "I was not, I made it perfectly clear to Malfoy that I was only insulting him personally, not his supposed girlfriend."

Andrew smiled slightly at Al's joke and waved a hand dismissively. "You don't have to worry about me believing anyone who would sink so low as to attack an unarmed opponent without warning. They'd set up a duel. And even though I can't officially condone dueling, given that as a prefect I've got to encourage the rules, I can tell you that I would not be nearly so harsh in doling out punishment for dueling as I will be for this. But dueling _clearly _isn't what happened here, because from what I've been hearing about you from our teachers, there's no way that Scorpius here would have beat you in a fair duel."

Scorpius was wearing a look of utter indignation, and Al couldn't tell whether he was angrier about the promised punishment, or by the fact that Andrew had just insulted him. For his part, Al was a bit shocked that any of the professors would have talked to Andrew about him. But then again, he supposed that prefects were a lot closer with the professors than other students were, so it made sense that he would talk to them... And he supposed that he was now Slytherin house's most famous student, being the son of Harry Potter.

"What's my punishment going to be?" asked Malfoy.

"A week's detention with Filch seems appropriate," said Himmel.

It seemed appropriate to Al, too, and he was just starting to think how much he liked Himmel when he remembered what James had said about him not being someone who he should associate with.

After the next DA meeting, Al approached James. Brittany, Chloe, and Rose followed him.

"Hey, can we talk to you about something for a minute?" asked Al.

"Sure..." said James. "Mind helping me clean up?"

"No problem," said Al.

"All right," said James. "You guys can go ahead," he said to Marty and John." Once they had left, James turned back to Al. "This won't be long, though, will it? I got them to move Quidditch practices back by half an hour, but I still ought to leave not too long after we clean up."

"Yeah, it shouldn't take long," said Al. "I was just wondering... What's so bad about Andrew Himmel?"

James actually cringed when he heard the name, which made Al slightly more sure that James had not simply been joking around with him again when he said to avoid Himmel.

"I don't really want to talk about it," said James.

"What do you mean? I've got a right to know, especially if you want me to listen to you," said Al.

James looked legitimately concerned. "Wait, you have been, right? Listening to me, I mean... you haven't been hanging around with him or anything have you?"

Al quickly recounted the story of what had happened on Tuesday night, as the girls started moving the room's desks back into place. They had, of course, already heard the story, the day after it happened.

James frowned. "Sounds like he's trying extra hard to get chummy with you. If you haven't noticed, it's not a very Slytherin-esque trait to care about the finer points of chivalry in battle... Slytherin himself never would have thought twice about attacking a wandless opponent, nor would a lot of the more recent alumni of the house..." James hesitated for a minute, glancing over at the girls. "I suppose Brittany already knows about the cloak and the map, then?"

"Of course," said Al.

"Fine, then I guess I can tell you lot this story, but I don't want it repeated. I haven't even told Marty or John," he said.

"All right," agreed Al, and the girls nodded in agreement.

"The first night of school last year, I was making a late-night snack run under the invisibility cloak, 'cause I couldn't sleep. I noticed Himmel on the map, but I knew he wasn't a prefect, since he was a fourth year last year, so I figured he was just breaking the rules like me. I put the map away for a little bit, and accidentally wound up in the same corridor as him. I wasn't too worried about it, figured I could just pass by him if I stayed close to the corner, but for some reason I had to pick _that _moment to sneeze, and he heard me. I still wasn't too worried, 'cause he wasn't a professor or anything, so I just stayed still under the cloak, hoping he'd think it was just his imagination and walk away. I didn't want to give myself away if I didn't have to, because I didn't want anyone aside from Marty and John knowing about the cloak. But apparently he heard me, and I was too shocked to move at first when I saw him lift his wand. Then I was even more shocked when I heard him say 'Cruciatus.'"

"He _what_?!" asked Rose.

"That's an unforgivable curse!" said Brittany, in shock.

"Yeah, well, I don't mind saying that it _felt _pretty unforgivable, too. Although it wasn't quite as bad as Dad described it being for him when he got it put on him. I think it was less bad because, well... I think Andrew was just _practicing_ it. I mean... He knew that someone was there, because he heard the sneeze, but he had no way of knowing who I was, so he couldn't properly want to hurt me, at least not as much as if he really knew and hated me. But how could someone only in fourth year even _want _to practice the Cruciatus? And how could _anyone _want to do it to a victim they couldn't even _see_?"

"But..." said Al, who was unsure whether to believe that James was telling the truth. "How did he know that you wouldn't tell on him?"

"I'd have had to admit that I was in the halls under an invisibility cloak after curfew. Besides, if he's the type of kid who gets made prefect, he's clearly on good terms with the professors. Why would they believe a second year who already had a reputation as a prankster over a fourth year? It's not like it even left any scars or anything. I had no proof."

There was silence for a moment. They had all stopped organizing the room, too enthralled by James' story.

"How long did he keep the curse on you?" asked Rose.

"Only about 5 seconds. Then he ran like hell, and so did I, because the pain had made me scream, and both of us were afraid that a professor would catch us out of bounds," said James.

Al said, "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Al," said James, seriously, "I know I've made up stories in the past, but this is real. It worries me that he seems to be trying to get on your good side, and I think he might be up to something. Just stay away from him as much as you can. The only type of kid who would use the Cruciatus curse nowadays is a would-be death-eater born too late. And... from now on, keep your wand in your pocket where you can reach it easier than if it's on the other end of a table. Sounds like the Slytherin common room's a more dangerous place than I thought."

_A/N: Quick note: Facio Innocens, as you probably understood from the above text, is meant to allow the beam of light from the spell to go through, but if the spell is one that causes pain, like Contusio, it will have no effect on the victim. Just wanted to make sure that was clear. Please review!_


	9. The Duel

A/N: Draco Dormiens Numquam Titilla: thanks for the review!

Chapter 9: The Duel

Al had a feeling that Scorpius would not be satisfied until he got revenge for the week's worth of detentions that he had to serve with Filch, but Scorpius made no noticeable attempt at revenge for more than two weeks. And even after the two weeks of security, the only things Al had to deal with were Scorpius' attempts to sneak up behind him in empty corridors or an empty common room. While Himmel's speech had clearly made no impression on Scorpius, Al had taken James' advice and always kept his wand at less than arm's length. He had also gotten quite good at reaching for it immediately when he heard any type of suspicious movement. The consequence of this was that he had a wand in hand not only every time Scorpius attempted to hex him, but also every time any random student, ghost, or cat, made any type of unexpected noise near him.

He was getting quite a reputation as being a bit paranoid, but on the plus side, by the time March rolled around, he had still managed to avoid getting hexed by Scorpius. Scorpius did his best to act innocent any time Al pulled his wand on him. However, as Al often caught Scorpius stowing his own wand behind his back at these moments, Al knew that the only reason for the act of innocence was that Scorpius still suspected that Al would beat him in a fair fight.

In the first week of March, though, on another night when Al was the last one up in the common room, he was approached not by Scorpius, but by Edward Rimmsen, one of his other roommates.

Al's hand was tightened on his wand in his pocket, just in case Scorpius had sent Edward as an emissary to do his dirty work for him, but Edward was wandless.

"You seem to stay up late a lot," commented Edward, sitting down on a chair across from Al.

"Yeah, what can I say, I procrastinate a lot," Al agreed.

"You're always spending time in the library, aren't you?" asked Edward.

"Just because I'm in the library doesn't mean that I concentrate as well as I should. But the homework usually gets done on time anyway, so it works, I guess," said Al, wondering what the point of this conversation was. No Slytherin aside from Brittany and Chloe had ever talked to him this much without some sort of ulterior motive. And most of them had never talked to him this much at all.

Edward was silent for a minute. "Scorpius is up to something," he said in a low voice, as he glanced over toward the direction of the dormitory rooms.

Al laughed slightly. "Yeah, he's been trying to sneak up on me for the last six weeks solid," Al said.

"Oh, yeah," said Edward. "I know about that. I think you've pulled your wand at least twice on me thinking it was him. But that's not what I'm talking about."

Al was a bit more interested now. If Scorpius' plans had finally progressed beyond badly executed attempts at stealth, this might be information worth knowing. "Oh yeah?" asked Al.

"Yeah," said Edward. "He's planning an ambush."

"Really?" asked Al. "How do you know that? And why are you telling me? Up until Scorpius started aggressively trying to hex me, I'd have said you disliked me as much as he did."

"Look, I'm not trying to pretend that I've been won over by your charm and good looks or anything," said Edward, rolling his eyes. "I still don't like you much, and usually I wouldn't mind it if little Scorpius succeeded in landing a hex on you. But in case you've been spending too much time in the library to notice, he's been getting a bit of a big head lately. Thinks he's the king of the Slytherin first years. All the girls aside from Brittany and Chloe think he's cute or something, and he's got Nott and Parkinson thinking they're his house-elves. My point is, you're not the only one for whom Scorpius is becoming a right pain in the ass."

Al nodded. "So you're saying it's nothing but self-interest that's making you tell me this?" he asked.

"I'm telling you that if I've got to pick a side in this little rivalry, it's going to be yours. Scorpius has been trying to intimidate me to fall in line with his two idiot house-elves, and I'm not going to do it. I figured that if I helped you in this matter, you'd help me if you ever heard him plotting something against me. And even if you don't, I'd still like to see the little bastard get embarrassed a bit when you walk into his ambush and are prepared for it. So... yeah. Basically, self-interest," said Edward.

"Fine. I'd expect nothing else from a Slytherin. That suggests you're being honest. And it answers the _why _you're telling me. But it doesn't explain how you know. Or specifically _what _you know, for that matter," said Al.

"Patience, Potter, I'm getting to that. But I should point out that you'd think you'd stop using the term Slytherin in a way that makes it sound like an insult. You're one of us, you know," pointed out Edward with a slight smirk.

"I'm well aware of what house I'm in. Get on with your story, won't you? I want to finish my essay before sunrise," said Al.

"All right. Tonight, around 6, I had a headache, so I was in my bed with the curtains drawn. Nott, Parkinson, and Malfoy came into our dorm, looking for some privacy, I guess. I was awake, but they didn't even know I was there, so I decided not to say anything. It's never a bad idea to eavesdrop when people are saying the sort of thing that requires privacy. So, I heard Scorpius say that he's going to challenge you to a duel tomorrow night, but when you get there, Nott and Parkinson are going to be hiding in the shadows and hex you from there. They figure the three of them can take one of you. Especially if you're not expecting it," said Edward.

"Clever. Now... how do I know that you're not in on this too, and that the real plan isn't to have _four _of you there when I'm expecting three? Or more than four, for that matter, if he's managed to get some second years, or even some of the girls in on this?" asked Al.

Edward rolled his eyes. "You said not two minutes ago that I was sounding honest," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but you could easily have been faking that. After all--"

"--Honesty's not a trait that Slytherins are particularly noted for," finished Edward. "Yeah, yeah, I know all the Slytherin stereotypes, I come from about 10 generations of Slytherins on my father's side. I suppose you're right, and that I can't do anything to prove my honesty, at least not before you've found out for yourself that I'm telling the truth."

"I'll believe it when I see it," said Al. "But, luckily, I've got a way of knowing whether you're being honest or not. On whatever night Malfoy sets this duel for, I want you to be in this common room during it. I'll know if you're not. And if it turns out you're being honest about this, maybe I'll help you show Malfoy you're not his house-elf."

Edward gave a curt nod and stood up. "Well... nice doing business with you, then."

The next morning at breakfast, at least part of what Edward told Al was confirmed as the truth. Al had arrived at breakfast before Brittany or Chloe got there, and when Scorpius saw him, he came over to sit down beside him.

"I think it's about time to settle our little feud once and for all," said Scorpius.

"So, you call failing to sneak up on someone for two months a feud?" asked Al.

"Why don't we agree to a duel, then?" asked Malfoy.

"I don't know, Malfoy, can we?" asked Al mockingly.

"If you're not too scared," said Malfoy, clearly doing his best to ignore that he'd been the coward over the past couple months.

"How about tonight in the common room after everyone goes to bed?" asked Al.

Malfoy shook his head. "I don't much fancy having Himmel there to save you once I've gained the advantage."

"Once you've gained the advantage... you mean once Nifflers learn Alchemy?" asked Al. He was doing all he could to annoy Scorpius, and was gratified to see that Scorpius was getting at least a bit irritated.

"Anyway, how about the Potions classroom, ten minutes past curfew, tonight? I've heard that prefects don't patrol down there much, since nobody's going to use the dungeons as a make-out spot," said Scorpius.

"Works for me," said Al.

At this point, Scorpius moved back to where Nott and Parkinson were sitting, several seats down the table. About two minutes later Chloe and Brittany sat down across form Al. He hadn't talked to them since before he had talked to Edward the previous night, but he decided not to tell them about the upcoming duel yet. He didn't want Malfoy to know he was telling anyone else about it, and he especially couldn't risk him overhearing that Al knew he was walking into a trap. So he had a normal conversation with them until their first class, which was History of Magic.

Once they sat down in this class, Brittany, Al, and Chloe, as they had gotten in the habit of doing at the beginning of each class, got out their enchanted pieces of parchment that they had received from George for Christmas.

Al wrote, "Chloe Baron, Brittany Matthews, Rose Weasley" on the piece of parchment, so that each of the girls would be able to see what he wrote. Using the piece of parchment, they had the following conversation.

_Albus Potter: Scorpius challenged me to duel him tonight._

_Rose Weasley: What? You're not going to do it, are you?_

_Albus Potter: Of course I am, but I've got more to tell you first, and I want to ask all of you a favor. _

_Rose Weasley: You shouldn't be dueling! I can't talk right now, though. I'm in Potions, and I've got to start making a potion, and my partner will notice if I keep writing while I'm supposed to do that! Brittany, try to talk some sense into him!_

_Chloe Baron: ... I wonder why she didn't ask _me _to talk any sense into you, Al._

_Brittany Matthews: She knows you haven't _got _any sense. But Al, I'll give you a chance to explain yourself before I try to change your plan. Frankly, I think it might be better for you to duel him and get it over with than to have him trying to jump you all the time. _

_Albus Potter: Thanks for that. Perhaps we can try to talk some sense into Rose later. But... here's the deal. Edward Rimmsen says that Malfoy's bringing Parkinson and Nott with him to sneak up on me while he's trying to duel me. _

_Brittany Matthews: Why do all of this boy's plans seem to involve some form of sneaking?_

_Chloe Baron: Because he's a coward? So, Al, you're asking us to come with you to even the odds? Sounds like a blast!_

_Albus Potter: That's not exactly what I'm asking, no. I want you to stay under the invisibility cloak and only come out if they win. Which they won't. _

_Brittany Matthews: Wait, you want to duel three of them by yourself? Are you crazy?_

_Chloe Baron: Yeah, why don't we get to duel? I've never been in one that wasn't just a practice duel. I bet it'll be a amazing!_

_Albus Potter: Look, the only way I'm going to get Scorpius to get off my case at this point is to prove that he can't do anything to hurt me. I figure the best way to do this is to beat him at his own game. I'm sure I can do it... Nott's practically a Squib anyway, you've seen him in classes. Besides, I'm going to borrow the Marauders' Map from James so I can see where they're hiding before I get in there, then I can take out Parkinson before the duel was supposed to start. Malfoy will try to hex me, then, but I bet he won't._

_Brittany Matthews: Fine, you seem to have thought this out pretty well. And we'll be there in case you get hurt. You're sure that Scorpius doesn't know any magic bad enough to actually hurt you? Albus Potter: If he did, he'd have done worse than give me boils when he had me paralyzed back in January._

_Brittany Matthews: Fair point. All right. I'm in. I bet we'll be able to convince Rose, too._

_Chloe Baron: I'm still sour you're not letting me play. _

_Albus Potter: Honestly. Look, if you want, me and you can duel after we've taken care of Malfoy and the other gits. Agreed?_

_Chloe Baron: Oooh... Okay, I'm in. _

_Albus Potter: Thank you!_

_Chloe Baron: Yeah, just remember, you owe me._

_Albus Potter: Wait... turn around and look at me, I need to roll my eyes at you._

That night, about half an hour before curfew, Chloe, Brittany, and Al left the Slytherin Common Room. They had left so early so that no one who wasn't supposed to would notice that they were disobeying curfew. They had also taken the precaution of making sure that Himmel wasn't in the common room before they left, having learned that lesson from the first post-curfew trip that Chloe and Al had taken.

They met Rose in the corridor outside the library about ten minutes before curfew.

"Did James let you borrow the map?" asked Al.

"Yeah, but he says you owe him one. He wants the invisibility cloak tomorrow night," said Rose.

"Fine, I'll give it to him at breakfast," said Al.

"You don't have to tell me, I'm not the one who wants it," said Rose. "Can we just get this over with?"

"It's not like I can speed time up for you, Rose. The duel's set for a specific time. But you're not still nervous, are you? We've got the map, we'll know if the situation is worse than we can handle..." said Al. He glanced down at the map. Malfoy, Parkinson, and Nott were pacing the corridors outside the potions classroom, probably reviewing last-minute plans. "See... it's just the three of them. You don't think you three can deal with them if they manage to hex me? 'Cause, if you don't think you can, maybe I shouldn't go through with this after all."

"Oh, of course you should!" said Chloe, after Rose took a moment to respond. "Look, you can't just not show up, Malfoy would have a field day with that."

"It's not that I don't think we can handle the three of them, I just don't want you to get hurt," said Rose, concernedly.

"Oh, relax, will you? I'll be fine," said Al.

"Yeah, come on Rose. I wouldn't let Al go into this if I didn't think he could handle it--" said Chloe.

"Wait, you wouldn't _let _me?" asked Al, defensively.

"Shush, I'm trying to convince Rose here, you prat," said Chloe with a grin that completely negated the insult. "Anyway," she continued, looking back at Rose. "We can agree, right, that there's no way any of the three of them can manage Avada Kedavra?"

"Of course!" said Rose. "No one under the age of 15 has _ever _performed that spell! And... even if he _could_, this is just a school feud. It's not like Malfoy would do anything that could end him up in Azkaban."

"Fine, then. Anything less than Avada Kedavra will cause nothing more than a bit of pain, which can be reversed by a quick trip to the Hospital Wing, at worst. And that's _if _Al loses. So, have a bit of confidence in your cousin, will you?" asked Chloe.

"If nothing else, it should be entertaining to watch," said Brittany with a grin. "Especially the facial expression on Malfoy when he realizes you took down three of them by yourself."

Al grinned back. It was good to know that Chloe and Brittany believed in him, at least. "All right, you guys... We're getting close to the potions corridor. We should quiet down, they shouldn't hear us talking. And why don't you three get under the cloak awhile."

Moments later, they were only one hallway away from the Potions corridor. Al gave the map one last look, to make sure that his three opponents, and only they, were in the Potions classroom. He saw that Parkinson and Nott were each occupying a different back-corner of the classroom. That was convenient, since it meant that he would be able to aim his spells at them without even getting more light in the room. He imagined that Malfoy would have lighted a candle or two in the room, but kept it dark enough that Al would not be able to see Nott and Parkinson.

With Rose, Chloe, and Brittany huddled under the cloak behind him, Al opened the door to the Potions room.

"You showed up," said Malfoy slowly.

"Yes, I did," said Al, scanning the room warily. Malfoy was in the center, where, as Al had expected, there was about a 10 foot circle of light. Al walked calmly toward it, knowing that Parkinson and Nott wouldn't strike until the duel was underway and his attention was distracted.

"All right, well, this will be a perfectly standard duel, with regular rules, except there won't be any seconds... I didn't ask you to bring one because I know you only seem to hang out with girls," the obvious suggestion in Malfoy's voice was that this was somehow a bad thing. Al rolled his eyes, knowing that, not only were Rose, Chloe, and Brittany much better company than Parkinson or Nott, but they would also serve as better seconds in a duel.

"Wait, before we get onto the rules, though, I've got one question... you haven't told anyone else about this duel, have you?" asked Al.

"Of course not," said Scorpius. "This is strictly between you and me."

Al nodded. Then, he pointed his wand at the back corner of the room. "Petrificus Totalus!" he said. He heard Parkinson fall to the ground at the same second that he was re-aiming his wand toward Malfoy.

As Malfoy was raising his wand, having taken a moment to grasp the failure of his carefully laid plan, Al aimed a quick "Stupify," at him, removing him from the action for the moment.

Meanwhile, he heard Nott moving, and knew that he was no longer in the corner where he was supposed to be. This would, of course, make things a bit harder. Nott stayed out of the circle of light in the middle of the room, and Al tensed up, ready to dodge as soon as the he heard the first syllable of a spell uttered. He was immensely grateful that Nott was far too young to know how to do any kind of nonverbal magic.

"Expelliarmus!" shouted Nott.

But, by the time "Ex-" was out of his mouth, Al had quickly dropped to the floor, watching at the same time as the flash of spell-light came from the back-center of the room. From his new vantage-point on the floor, Al shot a "Petrificus Totalus" in the direction of Nott's wand, just as the beam of light from Nott's spell was passing a good two feet above his head.

He heard Nott fall to the ground as well, and grinned.

He glanced at Malfoy, laying unconscious on the middle of the floor. He pointed his wand at him and said "Rennervate."

Malfoy stirred, and Al waited patiently until he was fully conscious and jumped to his feet.

"Lower your wand for a moment while we talk," said Al, as Malfoy made to raise his wand.

Malfoy reluctantly complied.

"Right, so, I was just taking care of a couple of intruders, whom you apparently did not invite to the duel. Of course, I regret having to hex you before the duel officially started, but it seemed as if you were trying to get in an early shot against me, which would hardly have been fair. At any rate, we can start now, whenever you're ready. What do you say, quick bow to each other, then we begin?"

Malfoy looked furious. They both knew that Nott and Parkinson were not uninvited intruders, but Malfoy also knew he couldn't contradict him. Malfoy hesitated, but seemed to know that to back out now would be akin to admitting that he was a coward. Stiffly, Malfoy said, "Fine. I'll bow when you do."

Al made a deep, almost showy bow. He grinned slightly at the amount that he was enjoying this whole scene, but he didn't take his eyes off Scorpius, knowing that he still might try something.

Scorpius bowed stiffly and quickly. As soon as they had both risen again to their full height, Malfoy yelled, "Incendio!"

At the same moment, Al yelled "Petrificus Totalus!" pointing at Scoripus' legs so that the spells wouldn't cross in mid-air. He hadn't had time to process what Scorpius was saying while he was shouting his own spell, but in the split second afterward, when he processed it, he prepared to drop to the ground in case his clothes caught fire.

His clothes did not catch fire. Malfoy did, however, fall to the ground.

"In the future, Malfoy, you may want to keep your spells to those that you can actually _perform. _You may also wish to consider that if you bring an opponent to a duel claiming that you'll come alone, but instead bring to of your cronies with you as well, your opponent may not be all that good of a sport after having won the duel. Which is why I'm not going to reverse the spells on any of the three of you. I'll let you wait here until morning, and I'm sure your condition will be sorted out then. Good-bye, then," said Al, opening the door and striding off down the hallway.

The girls followed, taking off the invisibility cloak so that they could talk to him once they were out of sight of the dungeons, and after a quick glance at the marauders' map to make sure no professors were in the vicinity.

Chloe was still giggling. "That little speech at the end was brilliant! 'You may also wish to consider...' you sounded like a bloody professor or something. I bet you he's furious."

"I'd say he's mostly furious over the fact that I left him petrified on the floor of the potions' classroom, moreso than at my scathing powers of speech," countered Al.

"I suppose you're right about that," agreed Chloe.

"You guys don't think I stepped over a line, do you? Leaving them there, like that, I mean?" asked Al. He was feeling a bit guilty.

"Of course not, Al!" said Chloe, apparently incredulous that such a question could even be asked.

"No, you were completely within your rights, there," said Brittany. "Neither of you stipulated that you had to reverse any spells before leaving the room."

"What do you think, Rose," asked Al, noticing that Rose had been silent. "If I can count on anyone to be my conscience, here, it'd better be you instead of these two Slytherins," finished Al with a playful grin at Chloe and Brittany. Still, he was only half-joking.

"I don't know... I don't think you did anything morally wrong. He was planning to attack you with unfair odds. And, judging by what he did _last _time he had you helpless, I think they got off light, compared with what they would have done to you if the roles had been reversed. Still... I just hope that they learn their lesson from this. I don't want you to constantly have to watch your back anymore," said Rose.

"Aww, are you worried about me?" asked Al, with a slightly mocking tone.

"Maybe a little," said Rose, rolling her eyes.

"Well, that's sweet," said Al sincerely. "But I can take care of myself."

"I suppose you've proved that tonight, haven't you?" conceded Rose.

"He's proven that he can take care of himself if he knows that he's got the three of us for back-up, anyway," said Chloe.

"Oh, honestly... I didn't ask the three of you to come tonight because I was scared, you know," said Al.

"Oh, really?" Chloe challenged. "Why did you bring us, then?"

"'Cause I knew that on the off-chance that they ended up besting me, if I got hurt, Rose would be mad at me going off to a duel on my own, and would never let me out of her sight again," said Al.

"Ah, so you _were _scared, then," pointed out Brittany.

"Yeah, just of Rose, not of Malfoy and his little guards back there," said Al.

"Well... I'm glad you're finally admitting to yourself that I'm the only person keeping you in line around here... Anyway, this is where we split off, then," said Rose, as she had to take a different path to get back to Gryffindor Tower than the other three did to get back to the Slytherin Common-Room.

"Wait a second," said Al. "You should probably either take the map or the cloak... Filch is patrolling tonight, and you might run into him."

"Oooh, I'll take the cloak. I love wearing that thing," said Rose. "Plus, now you won't have to give it to James tomorrow... you can just give him the map back, as that's much easier to disguise, given that it can just look like a regular piece of paper," Rose pointed out.

"Are you sure you don't want both? It's hardly any distance between here and our common room," said Brittany.

"Nah... It'll be hard to see the Marauders' Map anyway, if I'm invisible, and I'm holding it, it'll be invisible, too," said Rose.

Once Rose was gone, Chloe turned to Al. "We can go unpetrify them if you let me have a go with him," said Chloe. She paused a second. "On second thought, 'having a go with him' almost sounds dirty. We can unpetrify him if you'll let me _duel _him."

"We'll do neither," said Brittany. "It's about time we get to bed. We've got classes tomorrow."

"Wait! I thought Rose was the only thing that kept us in line!" said Chloe.

"Yeah, but when she's away, I've got to take over," said Brittany grimly.

"But, Al still owes me a duel between me and him!" Chloe whined.

"How about we go to our next DA meeting early, and duel there? I'm a little tired now, anyway. You wouldn't want to duel me in anything other than my peak condition, would you?" asked Al, giving a little yawn.

Chloe groaned. "Oh, I suppose not."

They reached the Slytherin common room and Brittany gave the password.

There was no one left in the common room, which Al thought was a bit weird, but then he smelled the air, which smelled faintly of dung-bombs, as if someone had set them off earlier and now the air was clearing. Al figured that the smell had been bad enough earlier that everyone had decided to go to their rooms early and either work on their schoolwork there, or make an early night of it.

"You know the best part of all this?" asked Al.

"What?" asked Brittany.

"That Himmel didn't show up. Now Malfoy can't blame anyone but himself and his own stupidity for his plan not working," said Al.

"Well... Unless he finds out that Rimmsen _told _you about his stupid plan..." said Chloe.

"True... But I could have figured it out myself, with the map," pointed out Al.

"That's a good point... although Malfoy wouldn't have any way of knowing it, since he doesn't know about the map... Besides, Rimmsen shouldn't tell him anything. He proved his loyalty by not being at the duel tonight, right?" asked Brittany.

"Right. So, see... it's a good thing Himmel didn't show up... Hey, wait, where _is _Himmel?" asked Al. He had been looking down at the map, and Himmel was not in the fifth year's Slytherin bedroom, and a quick glance around the corridors of the castle didn't show him either.

Chloe and Brittany came to the table that Al had placed the map on and looked as well.

"Is Rose back in her room yet?" asked Brittany with a bit of worry.

"Not yet," said Al, glancing at the place on the map where Rose was, in transit between the dungeons and Gryffindor Common Room.

"I just hope she doesn't get cornered by Himmel, if he's not in his dorm," said Brittany.

"Yeah, but... I really don't see him anywhere else on the map, either... Do you guys?" asked Al.

After about 20 seconds of searching, they came to the conclusion that Himmel was in fact no where to be found. The only dots that were roaming about out of their proper common rooms or bedrooms were Filch, Mrs. Norris, two prefects, and Rose.

"There seem to be a lot of Slytherins missing, though," said Chloe.

"Aren't there usually 5 guys in the 4th year guys room? There's only 3 there now... And... I don't know how many of the upper years there's supposed to be, but... That just doesn't look like enough," said Brittany.

"Yeah... That's weird," said Al.

"What do you think we should do?" asked Chloe.

"What _can _we do?" asked Al.

"I don't think there's really anything," said Brittany. "Besides... We don't really know that this is anything to worry about. All we know for sure is that a bunch of people are breaking curfew and seem to be out of the castle. Why don't we just wait until Rose is safely tucked away in Gryffindor Tower, then we tell James about it tomorrow."

"Agreed," said Al, and Chloe nodded.

_A/N: All right... there's another chapter... not quite my longest or anything, but... I kind of liked it. Please let me know what you think._


End file.
